On Augin Cento, Italy, Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741) performed on an instrument that was evidently just as unusual then as it is now. She has performed with her trio colleagues (cellist/gambist John Mark Rozendaal and harpsichordist David Schrader) at New York’s Frick Collection, the Boston Early Music Festival, the Indianapolis Early Music Festival, Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., Houston Early Music, and elsewhere. Founded in the early 2000s by double-bass virtuoso Jerry Fuller, Ars Antigua (“ancient art” in Medieval Latin) comprises seasoned early music veterans from the Chicago area. Pine’s period-instrument discography on Cedille Records includes six acclaimed albums with her ensemble Trio Settecento: Handel Sonatas for Violin and Continuo, An Italian Sojourn, A German Bouquet, A French Soirée, An English Fancy, and the recently released Veracini: Complete Sonate Accademiche.

Rachel Barton Pine is “one of the rare mainstream performers with a total grasp of Baroque style and embellishment” ( Fanfare) and “a most accomplished Baroque violinist, fully the equal of the foremost specialists ( Gramophone). As much could be said of the alert contributions of her colleagues.” “In everything, the spirit and sensitivity of Barton Pine’s playing were informed by her mastery of the instrument’s intricate technical demands. Pine, Cedille’s all-time best-selling artist, and Ars Antigua perform all eight of Vivaldi’s virtuosic concertos for viola d’amore, an unusual instrument of the violin family with 12 strings: six played with the bow, the others resonating passively for a sweet, silvery tone. In reviewing a program that Pine and Ars Antigua performed at the Chicago Humanities Festival, the Chicago Tribune praised Pine’s “deft, stylish playing” of her 1774 Gagliano viola d’amore. The seductively charming sound of the Baroque-era viola d’amore takes center stage in this new, all-Vivaldi recording with Billboard classical chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine and the veteran Chicago-based period instrument ensemble Ars Antigua, making its Cedille label debut.

A minor concerto vivaldi