I think I can safely speak for many a music-lover when I say “about time” for this new release. Rachel Podger’s become an absolute icon of the early-music world, but hasn’t recorded Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons until now. She’s certainly recorded plenty of his music before (I can confidently recommend her L’Estro Armonico of a couple of years ago, for instance), but it’s still enormously exciting to finally hear a violinist of her standing performing these peaks of the Baroque repertoire.

Podger and the Brecon Baroque lean heavily on the dramatic side of Vivaldi’s work. That’s not to say that the performances are excessively affected in any way, but that they revel...