Here Ottavio Dantone and the Accademia Bizantina offer stylish, expert performances of Concertos 1-6 on this first volume of their complete cycle for Arts Music. For example, their incisive staccato passages of the opening Adagio e spiccato of the Concerto No. 2 are exceptionally well articulated with an impressive variety of dynamic and textural detail. The exuberant first Allegro of the Third concerto (featuring one of Vivaldi's most famous melodies) is joyously punctuated with Baroque guitar and harpsichord accents, often amid severely delineated ensemble rhythms that rival the urgency of Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante's equally striking performance. As you might expect, there also are plenty of flashy violin sequences where one or more of the soloists (Vivaldi varied the number from one to four) can display their virtuosity. In the two Allegros of the Fifth concerto, for instance, violin soloists Stefano Montanari and Fiorenza De Donatis have a field day negotiating the wild cadenza-like passages and breathtaking multiple stops. These splendid performances are complemented by Arts' crisp and clear engineering, and Stefano Aresi's informative notes highlight many of the unorthodox creative risks Vivaldi took in composing his masterpiece.