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Vivaldi: La Gloria e Imeneo on CD

Written for the wedding celebrations in Venice of Louis XV and Marie Leszczynska, Vivaldi's serenade La Gloria e Imeneo offers a wonderful synthesis of his mid-1720 style and shines a light on two captivating voices, those of Teresa Iervolino and Carlo Vistoli. Truly enchanting!

The album will be released exactly 300 years after the work was first released.

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Resuming it's exploration of a less well-known side of the Red Priest's music, the Vivaldi Edition again explores the territory of the serenades by entrusting the neglected La Gloria e Imeneo to Andrea Buccarella and his Abchordis Ensemble, already champions of the Serenata a tre, issued two years ago (OP7901).

And what a revelation it is! Andrea Buccarella nails the work with his thoughtful phrasing, always full of life, fleet of foot, and expressive (for instance in Ognor colmi d'estrema dolcezza), inspiring the two singers to a level of intensity which stays with one. From the start his quicksilver direction of the Concerto for strings in F major (Allegro) is gripping, reaching unique heights in the two protagonist-heroes' short and ebullient duetto Vedro sempre la pace. And impossible to forget Gloria's aria Alle amene, franche arene, transfigured by the amber-shaded mezzo of the charismatic Teresa Iervolino, or again Carlo Vistoli's utterly sensual decorations in Imeneo's aria Care pupille!

Like Vivaldi's other Serenades preserved in the body of volume 27 of the Fonds Foà collection in Turin - the Serenata a 3 (1718) and La Sena festeggiante (1726) - La Gloria e Imeneo (1725) was written for a French patron, specifically Jacques-Vincent Languet, Count of Gergy (1667-1734) and France's ambassador to Venice between 1723 and 1731. With La Gloria e Imeneo, performed during the course of a splendid feast on 12 September 1725 at the French Embassy in Venice, Languet celebrated the wedding of Louis XV and the Polish Princess Marie Leszczynska, which had taken place at Fontainebleau some days earlier. The two allegorical characters, Gloria and Imeneo compete with each other in praising the royal couple. Written by an unknown author, the tightly knit libretto celebrates the political significance of the wedding and it's impact upon the royal dynasty and the descendants to be spawned by the union, as well as the peace and prosperity it will bring to the kingdom. Far from aping the French style, typified by the dotted rhythms of the Lully overture, with La Gloria e Imeneo Vivaldi rather presents a wonderful synthesis of his mid-1720s approach, and his painting of human emotions remains irresistibly charming.