This is a very attractive disc of violin concertos by Vivaldi. And they have been carefully chosen, furthermore, not just for their evocative or depictive subtitles but also on merit. Rarest on disc is the A major Concerto, Il cucu. In eighteenth-century England it was highly thought of, being one of two ''Celebrated Concertos'' issued in London by various publishers between 1717 and 1720. Then it was described as ''the favourite Concerto... composed by Signor Vivaldi, it being the choicest of all his works''. Dr Burney, too, sang its praises remarking that the ''Cuckoo Concerto, during my youth, was the wonder and delight of all frequenters of country concerts''. The remaining five concertos here have often been recorded in the past. Two of them, La tempesta di mare and La caccia come from the celebrated Op. 8 which contains the Four Seasons. Il favorito, a beautiful and tautly constructed work in E minor, is the second of six concertos contained in the composer's Op. 11 but, like L'amoroso, in E major, is also included in a set called La cetra, though not the well-known printed collection of that name (Op. 9); alone among them, Il sospetto in C minor belongs to no set.
The soloist, Jaap van Zweden, and the Combattimento Consort of Amsterdam are accomplished players who execute the music with technical finesse and a lively feeling for characterization. Slow movements are lyrically played and move without a hint of excessive sentiment. Faster movements are crisply articulated and eloquently phrased with a feeling for Vivaldi's expressive writing for the violin. These are not period instruments, by the way, but modern ones and very deliberately so. ''The period styles of playing so much in vogue nowadays are not the Consort's primary concern,'' reads a note at the back of the informative booklet. ''Without dismissing the use of original instruments entirely, Combattimento Consort Amsterdam has developed a style of playing in which the works performed also find full expression on modern instruments.'' Readers will make up their own minds on the issue but few will be disappointed by sensitive and musicianly playing of this kind. Organ is the preferred keyboard continuo instrument effectively complemented by a discreet chitarrone. I hope a second volume is forthcoming. Recommended.'