Some of these shifts work better than others, though the balance is firmly in favor of their musical experimentations.
Every detail has been carefully worked out, with numerous changes of tempi and dynamics sprinkled throughout each concerto. The Cleveland-based Apollo’s Fire is a tight ensemble, and like Fullana, play with infectious enthusiasm. Jeannette Sorrell and her merry band provide a wild accompaniment to Fullana’s musings. The end of the first movement of Autumn, for example, is surprisingly poignant, Fullana tenderly laying Vivaldi’s drunken peasants to bed before the return of the opening Allegro assai material. This isn’t to imply that moments of repose don’t receive their full due. There is a wonderful energy to Fullana’s playing, an energy that revives the sense of discovery, joy, and drama that can be lost in more humdrum outings of these pieces. This is not a paint-by-the-numbers rendition at any given moment, you will hear unexpected ornamentation, a surprise ricochet bowing, or a bit of particularly spicy rubato.
The Spanish violinist Francisco Fullana plays with the impeccable intonation and technical command you would expect from any Juilliard graduate, but he also plays with a great deal of verve and imagination. Passing on this recording would be a great pity, however, for this is an outstanding rendition of Vivaldi’s evergreen concerti. With so many recordings available, and with so much (over)exposure of the work itself, it’s likely that most serious listeners will have either expunged The Four Seasons from their collections, or that they have stubbornly held on to one or two favored discs, passing up the hundreds of newcomers that seem arrive on the market every year. If a determined compact disc collector set out to lay every recording of The Four Seasons end to end, it might be possible for him to form a land bridge from the United States to Europe. 15-17 April, 2021, Avon Lake United Church of Christ, USA Support us financially by purchasing from
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