Friday, March 23, 2012
Music and Vision Magazine
Vivaldi's The Four Seasons -- Music and Sonnets, on Guild GMCD 7375:
Sir Michael Gambon swipes a well-earned crust introducing this brand new and shiny-sparkling modern edition of The Four Seasons, with Robert Atchison, making the most of sonnets in many cases better forgotten. Still, a work that everyone must admit has been overplayed to the point of idiocy, gains by the rich baritone of Sir Michael and (especially) the airy glow of Atchison's elegant violin. The Altamira chamber orchestra (small but staunchly resonant) also supports Atchison's quicksilver pointillism and more eloquent long phrases to admiration, with the principal cello and viola especially characterful throughout.
Still, the perfectly controlled bow-arm of Atchison -- despite the occasional faintly self-indulgent shift -- is what makes this recording so special, in a wildly overcrowded field. And it is the pin-point eloquence of his violin's timbre -- now delicate, now powerful, now glowy -- that remains with the listener, after the recording is finished: along with the dark colouration of his D-string and his wonderfully vivid double-stops. This is a recording that sounds far better than that of many hugely celebrated violinists, and makes one wonder where Atchison has been keeping his sweeping phrasing, his dolce tone, and his effortlessly silvery upper register -- aside of course from earning money in session-work etc -- in which such talent is frankly wasted.
It is possible to cavil at the speeds of some of these movements, but only momentarily, because Robert Atchison has elected the speeds in each case best suited to his round and golden violin tone (which, frankly, was probably also the case in Vivaldi's day, with the very earliest performers). Here is no pre-determined furious speed or lazy ease, but what lies most easily under the fingers, which probably contributes to the organic feel of the whole.
So: you already have the mercurial (and faintly mad) Four Seasons of Nigel Kennedy plus Simon Standage's classic versions with the English Concert, plus the disaster-zone of the 1999 disc by Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Norwegian Trondheim Soloists (a present from a well-meaning adult pupil) besides? So do I. I still think that -- in most moods, and most temperatures -- Atchison's might be my favourite. After all, we don't know for sure, but it's poss that Vivaldi himself wrote the sonnets Sir Michael so tastefully intones. And Atchison combines exactly the right amount of swash and buckle without going nuts (no names, no pack drill ...)
Copyright © 13 January 2012 Alice McVeigh
Vivaldi's The Four Seasons -- Music and Sonnets, on Guild GMCD 7375:
Sir Michael Gambon swipes a well-earned crust introducing this brand new and shiny-sparkling modern edition of The Four Seasons, with Robert Atchison, making the most of sonnets in many cases better forgotten. Still, a work that everyone must admit has been overplayed to the point of idiocy, gains by the rich baritone of Sir Michael and (especially) the airy glow of Atchison's elegant violin. The Altamira chamber orchestra (small but staunchly resonant) also supports Atchison's quicksilver pointillism and more eloquent long phrases to admiration, with the principal cello and viola especially characterful throughout.
Still, the perfectly controlled bow-arm of Atchison -- despite the occasional faintly self-indulgent shift -- is what makes this recording so special, in a wildly overcrowded field. And it is the pin-point eloquence of his violin's timbre -- now delicate, now powerful, now glowy -- that remains with the listener, after the recording is finished: along with the dark colouration of his D-string and his wonderfully vivid double-stops. This is a recording that sounds far better than that of many hugely celebrated violinists, and makes one wonder where Atchison has been keeping his sweeping phrasing, his dolce tone, and his effortlessly silvery upper register -- aside of course from earning money in session-work etc -- in which such talent is frankly wasted.
It is possible to cavil at the speeds of some of these movements, but only momentarily, because Robert Atchison has elected the speeds in each case best suited to his round and golden violin tone (which, frankly, was probably also the case in Vivaldi's day, with the very earliest performers). Here is no pre-determined furious speed or lazy ease, but what lies most easily under the fingers, which probably contributes to the organic feel of the whole.
So: you already have the mercurial (and faintly mad) Four Seasons of Nigel Kennedy plus Simon Standage's classic versions with the English Concert, plus the disaster-zone of the 1999 disc by Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Norwegian Trondheim Soloists (a present from a well-meaning adult pupil) besides? So do I. I still think that -- in most moods, and most temperatures -- Atchison's might be my favourite. After all, we don't know for sure, but it's poss that Vivaldi himself wrote the sonnets Sir Michael so tastefully intones. And Atchison combines exactly the right amount of swash and buckle without going nuts (no names, no pack drill ...)
Copyright © 13 January 2012 Alice McVeigh
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