The approach here makes little musical sense, either. Iconographic and structural evidence from this building (look for yourself: today it's the Metropole hotel and restaurant) as well as similar Venetian institutions suggests that both the orchestras and choirs that performed at the Ospedale's famed concerts included ensembles of perhaps one or two dozen.

For one thing, many of the concertos here were composed for the Ospedale della Pietà, the orphanage where Vivaldi worked and wrote music for nearly three decades. Vivaldi's concertos aren't good candidates. The album was originally recorded in 1996, when this approach was fairly novel, but by 2010 performers had gotten a better feel for when it worked and when it didn't. This set of Vivaldi concertos for two violins is performed by violinist Giovanni Guglielmo's group L'Arte dell'Arco, which involves one historical instrument per part. The multicolored gumdrops in the artwork associated with the 2010 release of this album on the Dynamic label give little indication of the album's sound.

Vivaldi concerto for 2 violins