Exceptional musicianship from Isabelle Faust and Il Giardino Armonico at Sommets Musicaux

Isabelle Faust has many violin concertos in her repertoire, from early to contemporary, encompassing such famously challenging pieces as the Brahms and the Stravinsky. But it’s hard to imagine her putting on a better display of virtuosity and all round musicianship than she did last night at Sommets Musicaux, playing Vivaldi with Giovanni Antonini and Il Giardino Armonico.

Published in 1711, near the start of Vivaldi’s career as a freelance composer, L’estro armonico is a set of 12 concerti. The set is grouped in cycles of three, each of which has a concerto for four violins, for two violins and then for violin solo. Last night’s programme was a mixed selection, starting and ending with 4-2-1 groups (although not grouped as per the edition). This meant that we got to see Faust not just as soloist but also as one of a pair of soloists (with Stefano Barneschi) or one of a quartet.

The first obvious point about these concertos is that there are a lot of notes, most of them played very fast and with many repeated figures – in places, almost prefiguring the minimalism that would follow three centuries later. The musicians are therefore faced with a paradox – how to keep the notes sounding perfectly smooth in timing and dynamics while continually varying the timing, dynamics and shape to give colour and prevent the repetition from becoming tedious? And if that’s hard enough to resolve with one soloist, how to accomplish it with two or four? Faust was masterful. She could find a hundred colours and shapes for a simple set of four notes while keeping  the fundamental rhythmic pulse absolutely intact. It was an extraordinary demonstration not only of control but of basic musical instinct. Each decoration or subtlety of phrasing seemed perfectly appropriate to the moment – even when, in the closing concerto of the evening, she was pulling the rhythm around quite shamelessly.

Faust has been a regular collaborator with Il Giardino Armonico for nearly a decade, but even with that knowledge, one couldn’t fail to be astonished by her accuracy of timing and synchronisation with the ensemble. I noticed it most when she would play a lightning fast run which arrived with perfect timing on an accented note to join the ensemble’s entry, an effect which is thrilling to hear  incredibly hard to pull off. When playing double concertos, seated immediately next to Barneschi on the stage, their double violin sound truly sang with a single voice.

Another feature of these concertos is their conversational nature, with a great deal of time spent in dialogue between the different parts (of which there are generally seven). Antonini acted sometimes as moderator of the conversation, sometimes as cheerleader; he wasn’t exerting tight control over his players because there was no need whatsoever to do so. Their response was magnificent, with the sense of urgency and thrill never fading through the concert. The substantial continuo section of harpsichord, theorbo and double bass provided a consistently reliable foundation, while a particular mention goes to viola player Ernesto Braucher: his instrument was never in the foreground, but one kept noticing how his contributions helped the overall sound.

I’m not going to attempt a list of movements played with individual highlights. Suffice to say that this concert has opened my eyes to quite how much life Vivaldi’s music can contain.

David's trip was funded by Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad