Vivaldi's Serenate 'La Senna Festeggiante"
isn't a piece which is often performed. As far as I know there
has been a recording (on Italia) with the Cappella Coloniensis
(I can't remember the soloists), but there is no recording in
the catalogue. That is surprising, since it contains great arias.
In fact, it is full of them, as I concluded during a performance
by the King's Consort
last Tuesday here in Utrecht. This work is a typical occasional
work. It was probably written in 1726 for the name-day of the
French king Louis XV. There is hardly a story in it - as usual
in this kind of work - and that was probably the reason the programme
book didn't contain a translation of the text. Apart from pleasing
a VIP such compositions delivered the singers with an opportunity
to show their virtuosity to the audience. That also means that
a performance heavily depends on the quality of
the singers. I think that is the reason the recording I mentioned
was a disappointment.
Robert King did a lot better in the concert I attended. The "story"
is extremely simple: two allegorical characters, L'Età
dell'Oro (the Golden Era) and La Virtù (Virtue) are looking
for true happiness. They find it at the banks of the Seine with
the god of the river, La Senna. The soprano Mary Nelson (L'Età
dell'Oro) was a new name to me, but I was quite impressed with
her performance. She had a beautiful aria at the beginning of
the first part, a virtuoso imitation of the nightingale: "Se
qui pace tall'or vò cercando l'usignuol che sen vola cantando,
ferma il volo e risponde anch'ei pace". Her performance was
almost perfect. Later on she had another gem: Al mio seno il pargoletto,
an aria in a very quiet tempo, where both she and the orchestra
impressed with a beautiful phrasing and dynamic accents.I had
heard the contralto Hilary Summers before (in Handel's Messiah)
and I liked her then - she is one of the very few female altos
I can stand. She was very convincing in this work by Vivaldi as
well. Her arias are less virtuoso, but very nice. The best was
the last one: Così nell'aurora, where the soloist is accompanied
by muted strings, which creates a wonderful atmosphere of sunshine
and summer warmth, something we know from the 'Summer' in the
Four Seasons. The bass part is the most brilliant and virtuoso
of all three. Vivaldi expects a very flexible voice, but also
a voice with a wide range. The first aria (Qui nel profondo) describes
the depth and the fast-flowing water of the Seine. The singer
has to sing a lot of very deep notes and at a high speed. Neal
Davies stood the test quite convincingly and did make me forget
that I don't particularly like his voice. Another highlight was
the aria 'L'alta lor gloria immortale'. The soloists did blend
very well in the ensembles (at the start of the piece and at the
end of both the first and the second part). The orchestration
of this work is pretty conventional: no "fancy" instruments
like the mandolin or the 'salmoè' or whatever. Just strings
with basso continuo, with two recorders and two oboes (at some
passages the two oboists played additional recorders as well).
But
even with these limited means Vivaldi proved again to be a master
in orchestration. Very few composers have his ability to create
an atmosphere with an orchestra. The King's Consort realised the
orchestral parts much better than I expected. It isn't as colourful
as the best Italian baroque orchestras, but it certainly came
a long way.
Of course, not everything was perfect. First of all
I believe that an Italian orchestra and Italian singers would
make more of this piece. I also think that the soloists could
have used more ornamentation than they did. I am sure that the
singers Vivaldi had at his disposal will have gone further in
showing off their qualities. Something I didn't like was the performance
of the recitatives. It is the familiar story: I can't understand
why singers don't take the rhythmic freedom the composers of the
baroque expected.
But on the whole it was a very enjoyable evening. Hopefully this
work will be recorded by Robert King with this cast in the near
future.