Vivaldi: Complete Viola d’amore Concertos

It’s hard to imagine a more versatile violinist than Rachel Barton Pine, now in her early 40s. She plays the big Romantic concertos with major symphony orchestras but is also regarded as a leading baroque violin specialist, performing and recording with her period instrument ensemble Trio Settecento. She’s comfortable as well with non-classical genres, including Celtic, folk, and—believe it or not—thrash/ doom metal. (Pine was in a scary-looking band called Earthen Grave for six years.) So it’s no surprise that Pine turns out to be among the world’s leading exponents of the arcane viola d’amore, a viol-related instrument that surfaced in Europe in the late 1600s. It has six or seven bowed strings and another set beneath that vibrate sympathetically; compared to a violin, the tone is softer, warmer, sweeter, and more opaque. The viola d’amore’s literature is surprisingly substantial, with music still being written, but baroque composers dominate: Antonio Vivaldi’s eight concertos are a mainstay of the repertoire. Stylishly accompanied by the period-instrument Ars Antigua, and joined for the one double concerto by the distinguished lute player Hopkinson Smith, Pine is unfazed by the episodically formidable technical demands and plays with touching expressiveness. Cedille provides immediate and detailed sound.