Vivaldi and Roberta Invernizzi

In June 1712 you could have gone along to your local concert hall and have heard the very latest works from Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Frederic Händel, or Antonio Vivaldi (in theory, at any rate). All the works would have been in a familiar musical idiom and you could have sat back in your padded seat and enjoyed the evening, marvelling that the ink was scarcely dry on the music you were hearing. Times have changed.

Roberta Invernizzi does not have the media charisma of Sandrine Piau, Simone Kermes, Natalie Dessay or Magdalena Kozena. But she is an excellent soprano on a new Vivaldi opera aria CD, superbly supported by Fabio Bonizzoni and La Risonanza. 77 minutes of pure pleasure. They don't write things like this, any more. Something to listen to again, and again, and again.