How do you improve on perfection? My colleague David Vernier has already drawn your attention to the extraordinary accomplishment and sonic immediacy of this remarkable set of performances (see Reviews archive). Indeed, so fine do they sound that the multichannel format merely serves to offer a listening experience of a slightly “different” rather than “better” order. As usual in the best productions of this type, there’s an enhanced sense of room acoustic, a bit more space around the instruments; but in stereo the opposition of the solo to the mass of accompanying instruments remains perhaps a touch more firmly defined. In the final analysis, these are very slight differences, and either way this set offers engineering of true demonstration quality. I’d take these performances with me to test audio equipment any day, and the fact that they are equally fine interpretively is just the icing on the cake. A remarkable achievement by any measure, and certainly the finest Vivaldi release in years. [7/12/2003]
