Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin VIVALDI Doubles Concertos

With more than 500 concertos to choose from, it is easy to select an attractive program of Vivaldi's orchestral music. Indeed, some would argue that with such depth of repertoire, it would be hard not to assemble such a program. But one way or another, one would have to agree that the six works on this 2007 Harmonia Mundi disc make up a singularly attractive program. It opens and closes with two three-movement concerto grossos for string orchestra, and at its center are four enchanting concertos for four different sets of soloists. Each work and each set of soloists is first-rate and the quality of the playing raises even the most familiar work here to new heights. The Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin is a suave-toned, sweet-tempered, supremely virtuosic period-instrument orchestra that has demonstrated its excellence many times before. As led by violinist Georg Kallweit in all but the opening Concerto Grosso in G minor, the Akademie seems born to play Vivaldi. The suppleness of the tempos, the intensity of the intonation, and the fire in the tone ideally suit Vivaldi at his energetic best. It would be hard to pick out a single favorite, but if you want just a sample of what the Akademie can do with Vivaldi, try the penultimate Double Concerto in A minor for two violinists featuring Kallweit and Midori Seiler. The fire in the outer Allegros and the passion in the central Larghetto e spiritoso are simply scorching. Harmonia Mundi's sound is crisp, colorful, and deep. (James Leonard)

Midori Seiler / Concerto Köln VIVALDI: La Venezia di Anna Maria

Her life reads like the classic Baroque success story: brought up motherless in a Venetian orphanage, maturing into an "unparalleled violin virtuosa", treated as an equal by Antonio Vivaldi: Anna Maria dal Violin. Midori Seiler and Concerto Köln depict the life of this exceptional woman in "La Venezia di Anna Maria".

All her life long, Anna Maria (born 1696, died 1782) lived and worked in the Ospedale della Pietà. The Venetian orphanage for girls did more than just offer a home and a refuge to girls abandoned by their mothers. It was a school, a musical conservatory and a tourist attraction at the same time, a flourishing part of the city-state’s economy in which Anna Maria rapidly rose to stardom. Defying conventional expectations, the orphanage provided the springboard and proved the perfect setting for a career otherwise denied a female orphan in 18th-century Italy. As maestro di concerto of the Ospedale, Antonio Vivaldi took Anna Maria under his wing. Starting out as her mentor and teacher, he eventually wrote over two dozen Concerti per Anna Maria. She for her part brilliantly mastered the violin and a host of other instruments, and was praised as the "veritable embodiment of all that is good and beautiful", as a creature "ascending into Paradise". Before long everyone was demanding to hear her and it is largely thanks to her that Vivaldi's instrumental concertos blossomed as they did. Baroque specialist Midori Seiler and her congenial partner Concerto Köln offer a virtuoso portrayal of this artistic teamwork between Anna Maria and Vivaldi. Anna Maria noted in her "performance book" a large number of the concertos she played in the Chiesa dell'Ospedale. They have luckily survived and so these 160 sheets of music bear her handwriting in more senses than one. We see not only the notes as she transcribed them, but her own ornaments. And they shed light on how she and her contemporaries played the violin, opening a musical door from the present day into the Venice of nearly three centuries ago.
This album is the record of a fruitful collaboration: Antonio Vivaldi and Anna Maria – Midori Seiler and Concerto Köln – Midori Seiler and Anna Maria. As an equally virtuosic female violinist, Midori Seiler is the ideal candidate to challenge and emulate her Baroque predecessor. As a member of Berlin’s Akademie für Alte Musik, Seiler was a part of the ensemble’s international breakthrough, from 2005 to 2014 directing from the leader's desk. After a period as Professor at the Salzburg Mozarteum University she returned to Germany in 2017 as Professor at the Franz Liszt College of Music in Weimar. Holder of the Saxon Mozart Prize, she has enjoyed a long partnership with Concerto Köln. The orchestra has been one of the leading ensembles in the field of historical performance practice for more than 30 years, and as EU Cultural Ambassador 2012 is one of North Rhine-Westphalia’s claims to musical fame.
Four of the Concerti per Anna Maria have been selected for this album, together with one concerto each by Vivaldi's contemporaries Galuppi and Albinoni. On "La Venezia di Anna Maria", exceptional readings by Midori Seiler and Concerto Köln shed unique light on Venice as a flourishing centre of the arts at the height of its musical prowess.

Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin J.S. BACH Violin Concerto BWV 1052 - Double Concertos

This disc by the ever-outstanding Akademie für Alte Musik, Berlin, features "alternate universe" Johann Sebastian Bach concertos and includes a wholly new reconstruction of the Violin Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052R, by the Akademie's concertmaster Midori Seiler. Whereas earlier reconstructions, of which there are several, used Bach's own harpsichord arrangement of the now-lost violin original, as her point of departure Seiler has pressed into service Bach "Son Number 2's" slightly earlier harpsichord arrangement of about 1734. Ironically, the younger Bach's ineptitude in converting the violin part into an effective keyboard solo has, for Seiler, provided additional clues to its true nature. Certainly this is a very effective rendering of what Bach's original might have sounded like, and Seiler's own performance of the solo part is a passionate and winning outing that will make one forget about such messy editorial details.

Three other transcribed Bach concerti fill out the program; Bach's own arrangements of the Fourth Brandenburg Concerto (as BWV 1057), the "double" violin concerto for two harpsichords (BWV 1062), and the reconstructed Concerto for violin and oboe, BWV 1060R, heard in C minor here rather than D minor as is sometimes done. Of these, BWV 1057 seems the least successful, and that's just by virtue of the first-movement Allegro being as brisk as it is -- the tempo is so breathlessly zippy that it doesn't seem to give the music time to breathe, and sometimes the low instruments seem challenged in keeping up with the pace. Nevertheless, that's the only complaint; otherwise, Harmonia Mundi's Violin Concerto, BWV 1052, is about everything one could want from a disc of reconstructed concerti played by a period ensemble -- the sound is great and the performances are of such a high standard that it even puts the famous Neville Marriner recordings of similar Bach reconstructions on the defensive. (Uncle Dave Lewis)

Midori Seiler BACH The Violin Sonatas

This statement by Bach's biographer Philipp Spitta to sum up the Ciaconna in Partita No. 2 in D minor is in fact true of the entire Sei solo cycle. The sublimity and originality of these compositions can never be emphasised enough. Johann Sebastian Bach extravagantly draws on his rich fund of musical idiom to create harmonies and tone colours that reveal his masterstroke: by applying rigidly entrenched rules he gives free rein to the creative spirit. The rules of "pure composition", which until this cycle were applied only in large-scale polyphonic works for ensembles and in choral and keyboard works, are now being imposed by Bach on the little four-stringed violin in an uncompromising and, at times, awe-inspiring manner. Did I become a violinist to play Bach's solo works or do I play Bach's solo works in order to be a violinist? All I can say for sure is that my inner urge to play and master these pieces has been my motivation for many years, an ambition that continues to push me to the limits beyond. The Sei solo works are but a small part of Johann Sebastian Bach's phenomenal oeuvre. Yet, their performance is the most important part of my violin-playing career and the tribute to my many hours of practice. (Midori Seiler)

Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin REBEL Les Éléments - VIVALDI Le Quattro Stagioni

Harmonia Mundi's Rebel: Elements -- Vivaldi: Four Seasons combines two of the Baroque's biggest instrumental barnburners as performed by one of the top period instrument groups in Europe, Akademie für Alte Musik, Berlin, under the leadership of concertmasters  and featuring their star attraction, violinist Midori Seiler. Like Vivaldi's often derided as over-familiar Four Seasons, Jean-Féry Rebel's 1737 ballet Les Éléments does not want for good recordings, but it is nowhere near as famous as the Vivaldi; this is the first time the two have been combined on a recording, and these pieces are quite compatible given their shared, programmatic purposes. Inasmuch as the Akademie für Alte Musik, Berlin is concerned, these recordings reflect a staged performance of the two works as prepared for a festival in Italy in the fall of 2009 in collaboration with choreographer Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola. Some might find that the staging of instrumental -- or at least non-dramatic -- classics borders on the faddish. Nevertheless, one of the best recordings ever made of Bach's B minor Mass -- that led by Thomas Hengelbrock for DHM in 1997 -- was based on a similar instance where the work was presented as a show rather than a "straight" public performance of Bach's never-intended-as-liturgical choral masterpiece. For a musical text like Les Éléments, of which the content is something of a matter of debate given the incomplete form in which it has come down to us, Akademie für Alte Musik, Berlin's interpretation is remarkably fluid and evolutionary in keeping with Rebel's intentions of moving from Chaos through Creation. The performance evolves in a very patient and low-key way, from the crashing seven-note tone cluster that opens the work to the spring-like evocation of its final dances, and one can feel the sense of unfolding even down to the relative volume of the piece as it progresses through its various movements. This might not instantly become everyone's favorite recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, as it is meant to go with a performance and is tailored to fit to that; those familiar with the usual delivery of these four concerti might find this recording somewhat enigmatic and lacking in the usual fireworks. Nevertheless, it is an altogether original, daring, and completely valid reinterpretation of the piece; restrained, mysterious, and dramatically compelled, employing vibrant and occasionally violent contrasts. Seiler's interpretation of the solo violin in part is completely her own; in places where others linger, Seiler stabs through the passage like Hamlet stabbing Polonius through the curtain, whereas in passages that some violinists might perform on autopilot, Seiler finds a spot to indulge in an expressive figure or an ornament wholly unfamiliar, even to the seasoned Four Seasons listener. Listeners well-attuned to the established story arc of the Four Seasons may well dismiss this as perverse; difference for the sake of being different. Perhaps one might not want to make this the only version of the Four Seasons to own. Nevertheless, enjoying the album as a whole -- both the Rebel and Vivaldi taken together -- is the recommended option; it is very fast moving and interesting in addition to being edgy and assertively exceptional. The DVD of Akademie für Alte Musik, Berlin's performance with Esnaola would probably be the best way to experience this radical and enterprising concept; nevertheless, Harmonia Mundi's CD is a riveting and revelatory experience that commends itself to listeners welcoming a second opinion on the Four Seasons and as an introduction to Les Éléments, a work that easily could withstand exposure beyond those expert in Baroque literature. (Uncle Dave Lewis)