The flute has a true champion in Antonio Vivaldi, perhaps the fieriest of all of Western Europe's Baroque composers. Known as the Red Priest, Vivaldi was an accomplished violinist and conductor, and these flute concertos draw on the musical style he developed while acting as music director at an all-girl Venetian orphanage. The resulting music is alternately playful and serious, light-hearted and pensive, and each of the seven concertos featured on this recording are performed with an invariable warm, mellow sound from Hungarian flutist Béla Drahos, joined here by the Nicolaus Esterházy Sinfonia.

With names like "La Tempesta di Mare" ("Storm at Sea") and "La Notte" ("The Night"), each of these concertos tells a story, offering snapshots of a certain scene or mood, and on average lasting only about three minutes. Some highlights include the sportive first movement of the "Storm at Sea" concerto, Flute Concerto in F major, Op. 10, No. 1, RV... , with flute and orchestra soaring melodically upward and downward together, painting a picture of wind playfully tossing up waves. The second movement of "The Night" concerto, Flute Concerto in G minor, Op. 10, No. 2, RV... , whose fast-paced opening contains shades of "Summer" from Vivaldi's popular work The Four Seasons, shifts unexpectedly after about a minute into a slower section containing a languishing flute melody, shifting just as abruptly back again into the original, faster tempo. And the second movement of the F major concerto, Flute Concerto in F major, Op. 10, No. 5, RV 434... , is particularly deep and moving, with slow, pulsing orchestral exhalations underneath the flute as it glides above, playing a surprisingly broad melody for the Baroque era.

Recommended Tracks:
Flute Concerto in G minor, Op. 10, No. 2, RV...
Flute Concerto in F major, Op. 10, No. 5, RV 434...