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Vivaldi: Famous Concertos

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Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) Famous Concerti Once virtually forgotten, Antonio Vivaldi now enjoys a reputation that equals the international fame he enjoyed...

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Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)

Famous Concerti

Once virtually forgotten, Antonio Vivaldi now enjoys a reputation that equals the international fame he enjoyed in his heyday. Born in Venice in 1678, the son of a barber who was himself to win distinction as a violinist in the service of the great Gabrielis and Monteverdi at the basilica of San Marco, he studied for the priesthood and was ordained in 1703. At the same time he established himself as a violinist of remarkable ability. A later visitor to Venice described his playing in the opera-house in 1715, his use of high positions so that his fingers almost touched the bridge of the violin, leaving little room for the bow, and his contrapuntal cadenza, a fugue played at great speed. The experience, the observer added, was too artificial to be enjoyable.

Nevertheless Vivaldi was among the most famous virtuosi of the day, as well as being a prolific composer of music that won wide favour at home and abroad and exercised a far-reaching influence on the music of others.

For much of his life Vivaldi was intermittently associated with the Ospedale della Piet�, one of the four famous foundations in Venice for the education of orphan, illegitimate or indigent girls, a select group of whom were trained as musicians. Venice attracted, then as now, many foreign tourists, and the Piet� and its music long remained a centre of cultural pilgrimage. In 1703, the year of his ordination, Vivaldi, known as il prete rosso, the red priest, from the inherited colour of his hair, was appointed violin-�master of the pupils of the Piet�.

The position was subject to annual renewal by the board of goven1ors, whose voting was not invariably in Vivaldi's favour, particularly as his reputation and consequent obligations outside the orphanage increased. In 1709 he briefly left the Piet�, to be reinstated in 1711. In 1716 he was again removed, to be given, a month later, the title Maestro de' Concerti, director of instrumental music. A year later he left the Piet� for a period of three years spent in Mantua as Maestro di Cappella da Camera to Prince Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt, the German nobleman appointed by the Emperor in Vienna to govern the city.

By 1720 Vivaldi was again in Venice and in 1723 the relationship with the Piet� was resumed, apparently on a less formal basis. Vivaldi was commissioned to write two new concertos a month, and to rehearse and direct the performance of some of them. The arrangement allowed him to travel and he spent some time in Rome, and indirectly sought possible appointment in Paris through dedicating compositions to Louis XV, although there was no practical result. Vienna seemed to offer more, with the good will of Charles VI, whose inopportune death, when Vivaldi attempted in old age to find employment there, must have proved a very considerable disappointment.

In 1730 Vivaldi visited Bohemia; in 1735 he was appointed again to the position of Maestro de' Concerti at the Piet� and in 1738 he appeared in Amsterdam, where he led the orchestra at the centenary of the Schouwburg Theatre. By 1740, however, Venice had begun to grow tired of Vivaldi, and shortly after the performance of concertos specially written as part of a serenata for the entertainment of the young Prince Friedrich Christian of Saxony his impending departure was announced to the governors of the Piet�, who were asked, and at first refused, to buy some of his concertos.

The following year Vivaldi travelled to Vienna, where he arrived in June, and had time to sell some of the scores he had brought with him, before succumbing to some form of stomach inflammation. He died a month to the day after his arrival and was buried the same day with as little expense as possible. As was remarked in Venice, he had once been worth 50,000 ducats a year, but through his extravagance he died in poverty.

Much of Vivaldi's expenditure was presumably in the opera-house. He was associated from 1714 with the management of the San Angelo Theatre, a second-rate house which nevertheless began to win a name for decent performances, whatever its economies in quality and spectacle. Vivaldi is known to have written some 46 operas, and possible some 40 more than this; he was also involved as composer and entrepreneur in their production in other houses in Italy. It was his work in the opera-house that led to Benedetto Marcello's satirical attack on him in 1720 in Il teatro alla moda, on the frontispiece of which Aldaviva, alias Vivaldi, is seen as an angel with a fiddle, wearing a priest's hat, standing on the tiller with one foot raised, as if to beat time. It has been suggested that "on the fiddle" had similar connotations in Italian to those it retains in English. Vivaldi had his enemies.

Disc 1

Concerto for 2 Trumpets in C major, RV 537

(more info)

Performed by: Capella Istropolitana City of London Sinfonia New York Chamber Symphony
Composed by: Antonio Vivaldi
Conducted by: Edward H. Tarr Richard Edlinger Nicholas Kraemer Gerard Schwarz Holger Speck
Jeffrey Segal, trumpet
Michael Meeks, trumpet
Niklas Eklund, trumpet
K. Luspai, trumpet
Reinhold Friedrich, trumpet
Kamil Rosko, trumpet
Norman Smith, piccolo
Crispian Steele-Perkins, trumpet
Laura Vukobratovic, trumpet
Recording date: October 1994 and January 1995

Allegro - 2:56
Largo - 0:51
Allegro - 3:16

Oboe Concerto in A minor, RV 461

(more info)

Performed by: Budapest Failoni Chamber Orchestra Failoni Orchestra, Budapest
Composed by: Antonio Vivaldi
Conducted by: Pier Giorgio Morandi
Emilia Csanky, oboe
Judit Kiss-Domonkos, cello
Gabor Kosa, percussion
Stefan Schilli, oboe
Hans Peter Westermann, oboe
Lajos Lencses, oboe
Recording date: 17-21 April 1993

Allegro non molto - 3:32
Larghetto - 3:25
(Allegro) - 2:47

Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 3, No. 6, RV 356

(more info)

Performed by: Accademia Ziliniana
Composed by: Antonio Vivaldi
Conducted by: Peter Walls
Federico Guglielmo, violin
Takako Nishizaki, violin
Jindrich Pazdera, violin
Recording date: 26-28 March 1990

Allegro - 3:23
Largo - 2:32
Presto - 2:34

Sinfonia for Strings in D major, RV 122

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Performed by: City of London Sinfonia
Composed by: Antonio Vivaldi
Conducted by: Nicholas Kraemer
Helen McQueen, oboe
Christopher Hooker, oboe
Joanna Graham, bassoon
Recording date: October 1994 and January 1995

Allegro - 2:03
Largo - 0:55
Presto - 0:56

Oboe Concerto in C major, RV 447

(more info)

Performed by: Budapest Failoni Chamber Orchestra Musici de Montreal, I
Composed by: Antonio Vivaldi
Conducted by: Pier Giorgio Morandi
Judit Kiss-Domonkos, cello
Gabor Kosa, percussion
Theodore Baskin,
Yuli Turovsky, cello
Alfredo Bernardini, oboe
Stefan Schilli, oboe
Lajos Lencses, oboe
Recording date: 17-21 April 1993

Allegro non molto - 4:58
Larghetto - 3:39
Minuetto - 4:59

Cello Concerto in G major, RV 413

(more info)

Performed by: Hungarian State Opera Chamber Orchestra City of London Sinfonia
Composed by: Antonio Vivaldi
Conducted by: Nicholas Kraemer
Gyorgy Kertesz, cello
Raphael Wallfisch, cello
Recording date: April, May and September 1994

Allegro - 3:30
Largo - 2:48
Allegro - 2:55

Concerto for 2 Violins in A minor, Op. 3, No. 8, RV 522

(more info)

Performed by: Capella Istropolitana Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra Accademia Ziliniana Homburg Chamber Orchestra
Composed by: Antonio Vivaldi
Conducted by: Jaroslav Krecek Jozef Kopelman Jeanne Lamon Bernard Labadie
Julie Triquet, violin
Frantisek Figura, violin
Nicole Trotier,
Jindrich Pazdera, violin
Genevieve Gilardeau, violin
Dieter Stumm, violin
Uli Leibrock, violin
Helfried Steckel, violin

Allegro - 3:18
Larghetto e spiritoso - 3:54
Allegro - 3:01

Concerto for Strings in G major, RV 151, "Alla Rustica"

(more info)

Performed by: Accademia I Filarmonici Capella Istropolitana Collegium Musicum 90 Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra
Composed by: Antonio Vivaldi
Conducted by: Stephen Gunzenhauser Martin Sieghart Bernard Labadie
Simon Standage, violin
Alberto Martini, violin
Takako Nishizaki, violin
Angele Dubeau, violin
Rinaldo Alessandrini, harpsichord
Recording date: June 1995

Presto - 1:20
Adagio - 0:58
Allegro - 1:35

Concerto for 2 Mandolins in G major, RV 532

(more info)

Performed by: Camerata Cassovia
Composed by: Antonio Vivaldi
Conducted by: Johannes Wildner
Bela Sztankovitz, guitar
Raymond Migy, guitar
Rolf Lislevand, lute
Dagoberto Linhares, guitar
Zoltan Tokos, guitar
Recording date: 2-7 February 1991

Allegro - 4:24
Andante - 3:39
Allegro - 3:44

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