Vivaldi, Locatelly and Haydn. Baroque proyect. Madrid

Vivaldi, Locatelly and Hyden. Baroque project of the Spain National Orchestra and Choir

Madrid. 5/10/2013.

National Auditorium of music (Symphony Hall).

First concert of the «Baroque project of OCNE” (Spain National Orchestra and Choir).

Dmitry Sinkovsky (violin), Baroque Ensemble of the National Orchestra of Spain, Giovanni Antonini (director).

Program: Concert for string in G minor RV 157 and Concert for violin, strings and continuo in D minor RV 242 (Vivaldi); Don Juan, selection (Gluck); Concerto grosso in E flat major opus 7 No. 6, «Il pianto d’Arianna» (Locatelli); Symphony No. 45 in F-sharp minor, «Good-byes» (Haydn).

Exquisiteness and meticulousness.

With this first concert of the cycle Satellites, the Spain National Orchestra and Chor inaugurated its particular Baroque project at the National Auditorium. And have done so by the hand of the Milanese conductor Giovanni Antonini, one of the leading current specialists in the Baroque repertoire as director of the ensemble, which he founded in 1989, “Il Giardino Armonico”, which recorded numerous records of Vivaldi instrumental works with great success

Precisely with the music of the Venetian composer, Antonini in front of the Baroque Ensemble of the Spain National Orchestra opened and closed the first part of the concert: Concerto for Orchestra of strings and continuo in G minor RV 157, paradigm of austerity and conciseness in the Vivaldi concert catalog, served for the Baroque Ensemble (whose instrumentalists except the cellos ran foot music, old-fashioned disposition in the Baroque ensembles) spoke with themselves with the restraint and accuracy printed in the arms (not costumed to use baton) of the Milanese conductor; While the Concerto for violin, strings and continuo in D minor RV 242 for the soloist violin of Dmitry Sinkovsky in its continuous confrontation with the Orchestra. The apparent ease and amazing ability quasi innate to the virtuosity displayed by the Russian violinist in the extremely arpeggiated outer movements (which his passion leads him to not stop moving across the stage), supplemented by a master cared in the expressive handling of the syncopations by Antonini, led to that on a tip Sinkovsky delighted the respectable with his second artistic side the contralto, at aria «But who may abide» of the first part of the Messiah of Handel, who sang with multiple expressive nuances in its two more accelerated parts.

It is perceived that Giovanni Antonini is a meticulous director when it comes to dynamics and agogic nuances  of the Baroque instrumental music, and it showed it more than amply in the instrumental selection of short numbers of the ballet Don Juan by Gluck based on the work of Molière. In addition, a display of effectiveness like no other, went to the end with all the Ensemble Baroque unbridled (nurtured in this work with two horns, two oboes and bassoon) in a huge demonstration of virtuosity to a frenetic descriptive passage that recalls vividly Vivaldi summer Presto’s or the «dance of the Furies» from Orfeo ed Euridice by the own Gluck opera. On the piece entitled «La serenata» struck a run a typically Baroque mode when playing pizzicato, as it is to place the violins and violas in front of teachers body, as if it were a guitar, zither, or lute.

Apart from the two concertos by Vivaldi, the rest of the chosen works looked somewhat to Il Prete Rosso, and the first piece of the second part had a lot of influence: Concerto grosso in E flat major opus 7 No. 6, «Il pianto d’Arianna» of Pietro Antonio Locatelli (based on the myth of Ariadne), a model this, the one of Concerto grosso, which already Arcangelo Corelli had institutionalized decades ago. The truth is that the climate of meditation and spirituality that Antonini had created at the end of this concerto, with delicate notes of pianissimo strings, was slightly broken by the mundane sound of a far mobile phone.

But what caused great excitement was reading «Good-byes» of Haydn Symphony from the historicist perspective of Antonini. And as expected, it left no one indifferent. The energetic and dramatic first time (already influenced by the tendency of Sturm und Drang) resulted in a large vigorous thrust and a sharp combination of planes always attentive and precise hands of Antonini, while sharp sound of the tubes that permeated the set in his solos could have been more careful. It followed a collected and very intimal Adagio before the Curt and rustic minuet into the unconventional and surprising Finale: Presto-Adagio. True to the title of the work and what happened the day of the premiere in the summer of the Esterhazy Palace, the instrumentalists of the Spain National Orchestra staged the context of this movement quietly abandoned their lecterns (including Antonini, prior handshake to its concertmaster Sinkovsky), gradually reducing the Orchestra until the first two violins, which without turning off lights or candles (as if occurred during the Haydn), put the brooch to an evening of Baroque taste and delicacy through the classicism of Gluck and Haydn understood in historical criteria.

Germán Garcia Tomas

Traducción: Mª. García-Rosado