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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Exquisite
Comment: This is such an outstandingly beautiful collection! It delivers 4 hours of some of the most beautiful baroque music ever written. Vivaldi has an amazing talent for finding all the shades an colours of the cello, an instrument that can be joyous one moment and heart wrenchingly sad the next. More than its smaller cousin the violin, the cello is the true mirror of the human soul, and Vivaldi gives you all that colour and scope in this collection of Concertos. Who better to play this wonderful music than Canada's own Ofra Harnoy? Her connection to Vivaldi is powerful here!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Buy the CD's and Rip Your Own MP3's
Comment: Like most reviewers, I find these delightful. However, please note that the CD's available from Amazon are just under $16.00, while the same tracks at poorer quality 256 kbps are available for downloading is just under $33.00. So save about 50%, get the "hard copies," wait a few days, and rip if you want, and then enjoy!
Customer Rating:
Summary: An absolute must-buy
Comment: This 4-disc set, neatly packaged in a compact case with cardboard sleeves, is outstanding value. The music is incredible and the performances are masterful. Even if this set were five times more expensive, I'd still consider it a bargain.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Top-Vivaldi
Comment: In this box set is a collection of jewlels, as the cover suggests. I've had this set for over a year now, and I am familiar (yes, familiar) with all these cello concertos.
I'll make this easy: if you love Vivaldi, don't hesitate. If you merely like Vivaldi, you really need to get this. ANd if you don't like Vivaldi, it may be because you detest the Four Seasons and haven't hear this music. In which case, you should try it out.
Obviously this isn't a period instruments recording, no fancy european names...but let me assure you that Ofra Harnoy and Toronto sound as fresh as anyone can.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A solid set... at a tremendous value
Comment: This set is really represents an outstanding bargain for anybody wanting to acquire the majority of Vivaldi's (1678-1741) cello concerti.
The playing by the cellist, Ofra Harnoy, is quite fine. The accompaniment by the Toronto Chamber Orchestra is full-bodied, yet not overpowering. The sound engineering (these recordings date from the late eighties and early nineties) is also very good.
But are these concerti worth getting to know? Well, I definitely think so. In my opinion, the argument that Vivaldi wrote the same concerto 600 items has been debunked by recent recordings of his lesser-known works. Each cello concerto is expertly crafted, and each concerto contains its own distinctive themes. The opening the movement ritornelli are delightful (the energetic, ascending opening of RV 404 is a personal favorite), the central movements are lovely (the deeply rich second movement of RV 420 is startlingly novel) and the closing movements are filled with inexhaustible virtuosity (the mischievous third movement of RV 424 and the lilting, compound-meter melody of RV 404 are particularly entertaining).
I will mention that while the playing, by both the ensemble and the soloist, is good, I would characterize this set as a 'conservative' interpretation of Vivaldi's works. In recent years, there has been a movement to infuse Vivaldi's concerti with more pronounced dynamic and tempo contrasts. In these more recent performances, the accented notes have more punch, color and depth is added to basso continue line through the inclusion of a lute, and the soloist has more interpretive leeway. I personally prefer this more interpretive approach to Vivaldi's concerti, but others may disagree. This approach, as applied to Vivaldi's cello concerti, can be heard in Vivaldi: Concerti per violoncello 1.
You may notice that I used the word 'majority' in the first sentence of this review, which, disappointingly, means that this set does not constitute the Red Priest's 'complete' cello concerti. Missing from this set are RV 398, RV 410, RV 415, RV 421 and the entertaining RV 531 for two cellos. Being a completist, this slightly irks me, but I suspect that this will not be a factor for most people.
So, in conclusion, this is a solid release; and at the current price it does not make sense to give this set anything other than my highest recommendation to those looking to discover Vivaldi's cello concerti.
Total Times:
CD 1: 53:53
CD 2: 73:25
CD 3: 59:02
CD 4: 62:43
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