The two settings of the Gloria were probably written for the Ospedale della Pieta where, for a brief spell, Vivaldi acted as maestro di coro; significantly, there are no solos for male voices and, one presumes, in the choruses the women sang the lower strands too, though up an octave where necessary. Both settings are in D major and both are similarly though not identically scored for an orchestra of trumpet(s), oboes, strings and continuo; in these performances the conitnuo includes a harpsichord, organ (which I could not once hear), bassoon and theorbo.
In this recording the general approach to the music would serve late nineteenth-century repertoire better than it does Vivaldi's crisp and concise sacred works. All too often Scimone indulges in enervating legato phrases which deny the music much in the way of lucid articulation. Some tempos are extremely ponderous as, for instance, are the ''Domine Deus'' and ''Domine Deus, Agnus Dei'' of RV589; not even the solo singing of Cecilia Gasdia rescues the former from its comatose state. I suspect it is this absurdly slow tempo, in fact, which lures her into some stylistic anachronisms. I'm afraid the choral singing is undistinguished, too, reaching a nadir in the opening movement of RV588.
Oh dear! I wish I could be more enthusiastic about these performances. There is no shortage of talent amongst the artists but the whole project strikes me as being totally misguided. Scimone seems to flit from one extreme to another. If the ''Domine Deus, Agnus Dei'' of RV589 is interminable then the same movement in RV588 proceeds at a breakneck and quite nonsensical speed. Why? I am utterly mystified. The stars of the recording are undoubtedly the French trumpeter Guy Touvron and the oboist, Pietro Borgonovo, both of whom capture some of the spirit of the music. In conclusion, I can find little to commend and nothing preferable to the recording of the same works by the choir of St john's College, Cambridge under George Guest on Argo. Both versions use instruments at modern pitch but Guest offers firmer, livelier and more polished performances with none of the idiosyncracies present on the new Erato LP; he does for some reason, however, opt for a tenor soloist in the ''Domine Deus'' of RV588. My pressing was poor, by the way, and I experienced patches of distortion. A disappointing issue.'