Violinist and director acknowledges the challenges he faces right up front in his note to this release, writing, "Yes, 'another' recording of 's !" However, he goes on to argue, correctly, that the four concertos offer "an infinity of imaginative possibilities," and he and his musicians live up to the challenges thus posed to themselves. The first attraction is 's violin, a instrument from Naples loaned by Versailles castle, which the violin is leaving here for the first time in a century. played it from time to time 50 years ago, but it has rarely been heard. It is a remarkable violin with a gutsy lower register that is ideal for the sense of drama that brings to 's music. That sense of drama is evident in 's general interpretations, which are fast and punchy in the Italian manner, and also in specific details that bring out 's seasonal program; his readings are fresh and do not avoid tempo flexibility when it seems justified. The phrasing of 's instrumental lines is also open to many possible interpretations, and even hardcore lovers will find new approaches here. There is a wonderful countertenor aria as an entr'acte and a muscular reading of 's take on the ground bass piece , as an imposing finale. The downside, perhaps, is the one-player-per-part performance; French traveler reported an orchestra of 40 girls at 's Ospedale della Pietà. The small group reduces the huge contrast between the solo and the tutti group, which is, in some sense, the whole point. Adherent of this approach, however, will find much to enjoy here, and there is a lot even for others. 's sound from Paris' Théâtre sicilien de l'Ambassade d'Italie en France is ideal. ~ James Manheim