Classical Vinyl Records

In the 18th century, long before any quota agreement or gender studies had taken place, a major part of Venice’s musical life lay in the hands of four local orphanages for girls. In 1703, Vivaldi took on the position as conductor, violinist and composer at one of these homes, the Ospedale della Pietà. There he wrote works that are among the very best in music literature due to their inventiveness and artistic demands upon the musicians. As such, one can well imagine just how extraordinarily talented the young girls were. A notion of the fine compositions that floated through the city of canals 300 years ago is given by the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra in a selection taken from a collection of 12 violin concertos known as L’estro armonico, op. 3. The animated dialogue among the strings takes place on several levels: for example, the leading parts not only concertise with and against one another but also after one another, so that the characteristic art of performance of each individual soloist is clearly to be discerned.

And because no one knows how Vivaldi’s girl orchestra would have sounded, anyone listening to this recording can let his imagination run riot as to how it could have been. It goes without saying that the Tacet team have pulled out all the stops with regard to technical matters in order to achieve the best possible analogue sound.

Can a small ensemble perform a monumental work? Absolutely, as is demonstrated so impressively by Mozart’s Serenade for Winds in B flat major, K. 361. Just a handful of musicians – 13 in all – enchant us for well over 45 minutes with a superb and inimitable serenade of symphonic proportions. In this highly original composition one must constantly admire the thrilling presence of the players who perform brilliantly both as soloists and in pairs. Bowing to the traditions of the Viennese Divertimento, Mozart unfolds his artistic and entertaining ideas before his good-humoured audience, both those of then and of now. The small forms, such as the courtly Minuet and the cheerful Laendler, provide a marked contrast to the sanctified Adagio and the blithe Rondo-Finale in the manner of a drinking song. The Stuttgart Winds perform with freshness and inspiration, and the sound is further enhances by Tacet’s recording engineer Andreas Spreer, using half-speed mastering to achieve the best-possible sound. The contemporary author Johann Friedrich Schink would have had much pleasure from this deceleration of speed that improves the quality of sound; he described his pleasure at a concert in the following words: »… every instrument was played by a maestro – oh what an effect – glorious and grandiose, inspired and sublime.«

Recording: October 2012 by Andreas Spreer
Production: Andreas Spreer