Electric Vivaldi - Antonio Vivaldi - Pandora Internet Radio

Newport

2006

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Antonio Vivaldi

Electric Vivaldi

About This Album

Electric Vivaldi doesn't sound like the Switched-On Bach recordings of the 1960s that simply transferred Bach's music to early electronic instruments. Nor is it another in the line of recent releases that use classical compositions as raw materials or as samples in the creation of new music of the sort lumped under the umbrella label of electronica (although the Winter Remix that closes the album falls more or less into this category). Instead, violinist Gregory T.S. Walker attempts something more ambitious -- a fusion of Vivaldi's actual music with modes of expression drawn from electronica. Walker is the son of composer George Walker (whose name is usually followed by the phrase "dean of African-American composers") and scholar Helen Walker-Hill, so he seems well-equipped for the large task that awaits him. He has previously written a symphony entitled Dream N the Hood, for rapper and orchestra.

Walker's reimagining of the Four Seasons involves three layers. First is Walker with what is denoted an electronic violin; he is also credited as producer, programmer, editor, mixing engineer, video direction (there is a video bonus track on the disc), graphic design, photography, and guitar. The violin is a protean thing that can sound like a trumpet at one moment, a recorder next, and an electronic keyboard after that, all without losing a distinctly violinistic attack. The second layer consists of the strings of the Boulder (Colorado) Philharmonic Orchestra, playing Vivaldi's orchestral parts in approximately their original forms (added ideas are articulated through slowdowns in the tempo). Finally there is the synthesizer of Walker's wife Lori Walker, who adds sound effects appropriate to the original season involved and backs a vocoder-like reading of excerpts from the sonnet, thought to be by Vivaldi himself, that provides a program for each individual concerto. These readings come at the beginning of the concerto, and they're strangely compelling. The same is true of Walker's violin; in Vivaldi's slow movements (try track 15), where Walker is sticking close to the original tune, he's very expressive. Walker's music is never boring, and he doesn't repeat himself. Of course, that's not entirely a good thing: the consistency of texture in Vivaldi's music is lost.

Indeed, the biggest question about Walker's electric Four Seasons is whether he does violence to Vivaldi's music -- this is presented as a performance of the Four Seasons, not as an original electronic composition sampling the work. For even their most casual listeners, the tremendous appeal of Vivaldi's Four Seasons comes from creative tension between their incredible variety and their rigid structure -- from the way Vivaldi manages to create such delicate, detailed programmatic effects within the plain outlines of a three-movement, fast-slow-fast, tutti-solo-tutti violin concerto. In Walker's version, with more going on, that tension is lost. But something has been gained here as well -- a rapprochement between the classical and electronic fields that is different from and more extensive than any other achieved thus far. Listeners will have to weigh the work in the balance according to their own priorities, but the exercise is valuable in itself. ~ James Manheim, All Music Guide

Continued…

Track List

Descriptive Sonnet To The Concerto Entitled "Spring" ("La Primavera"), Op. 8/1, Rv 269 (**Unused**)

The Four Seasons (Il Quattro Stagione), Concertos (4) For Violin, Strings & Continuo ("Il Cimento" Nos. 1-4) , Op. 8/1 - 4

Descriptive Sonnet to the Concerto Entitled "Summer" ("L'estate"), Op. 8/2, Rv 315 (**UNUSED**)

The Four Seasons (Il Quattro Stagione), Concertos (4) For Violin, Strings & Continuo ("Il Cimento" Nos. 1-4) , Op. 8/1 - 4

Descriptive Sonnet to the Concerto Entitled "Autumn" ("L'autunno"), Op. 8/3, Rv 293 (**UNUSED**)

The Four Seasons (Il Quattro Stagione), Concertos (4) For Violin, Strings & Continuo ("Il Cimento" Nos. 1-4) , Op. 8/1 - 4

10.

11.

12.

Descriptive Sonnet to the Concerto Entitled "the Winter" ("L'inverno"), Op. 8/4, Rv 297 (**UNUSED**)

13.

The Four Seasons (Il Quattro Stagione), Concertos (4) For Violin, Strings & Continuo ("Il Cimento" Nos. 1-4) , Op. 8/1 - 4

14.

15.

16.

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James Correia says:

edited on 08-07-2009

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