Drawing on a hatful of tricks, Benedetti makes her violin sing and dance, rage and lament. Flirtatious exchanges between soloist and ensemble enhance the tonal and textural contrasts of the Dmajor work’s opening movement, while Benedetti pours out its pathos-laden Larghetto in honeyed tones and sparkles in the finale’s virtuosic fireworks.

a vibrant set of performances with all the energy of ‘Italia’ but now with an unmistakably period sound, her crack ensemble providing crisply attentive support...a distinctly impressive album, whether or not you’re a diehard Benedetti fan.

Benedetti herself, playing on gut strings for the first time, shows herself a ready pupil of the early music experts she’s been working with; her sound, shorn of vibrato, is initially dry and almost choppy, though she subsequently proves equally capable of presenting her customary lyricism via this new technique.

Benedetti digs deep into her strings, producing a raw, intense sound in Geminiani’s Concerto Grosso in D minor...and in three carefully chosen concertos from Vivaldi’s vast output…everything this artist does bristles with life, technical mastery and interpretive flair.