VIVALDI: Chamber Concertos
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Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) Concertos for Recorder Antonio Vivaldi was born in 1678, the son of a barber who later served as a violinist at the great...
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
Concertos for Recorder
Antonio Vivaldi was born in 1678, the son of a barber
who later served as a violinist at the great Basilica of San
Marco, where the Gabrielis and then Monteverdi had
presided. Vivaldi studied for the priesthood and was
ordained in 1703. At the same time he won a reputation
for himself as a violinist of phenomenal ability and was
appointed violin-master at the Ospedale della Pietŕ. This
last was one of four such charitable institutions,
established for the education of orphan, indigent or
illegitimate girls and boasting a particularly fine musical
tradition, which attracted visitors to Venice from other
countries. Here the girls were trained in music, some of
the more talented continuing to serve there as assistant
teachers, earning the dowry necessary for marriage.
Vivaldi's association with the Pietŕ continued
intermittently throughout his life, interrupted in 1718
when he moved for three years to Mantua as Maestro di
Cappella da Camera to Prince Philip of Hesse-
Darmstadt, appointed governor of the city by the
Emperor in Vienna. In Venice again, in 1723 Vivaldi
returned to the Pietŕ under a freer form of contract that
provided at first for the composition of two new
concertos every month, some of which he would himself
direct. At the same time he enjoyed a connection with
the theatre, as the composer of some fifty operas, and
possibly many more, and as director and manager. He
finally left Venice in 1741, travelling to Vienna, where
there seemed some possibility of furthering his career
under the imperial patronage of Charles VI, whose
relatively sudden death proved as inopportune for
Vivaldi as it did for the Habsburg dynasty. Vivaldi died
in Vienna in July, a month to the day from his arrival in
the city, in relative poverty. At one time he had been
worth 50,000 ducats a year, it seemed, but now had little
to show for it, as he arranged for the sale of some of the
music he had brought with him.
In perfecting the newly developing form of the
Italian solo concerto Vivaldi played an important part.
He left nearly five hundred concertos. Many of these
were for his own instrument, the violin, but there were
others for a variety of solo instruments or for groups of
instruments. He claimed to be able to compose a new
work quicker than a copyist could write it out, and he
clearly coupled immense facility with a remarkable
capacity for variety within the confines of the threemovement
form, with its faster outer movements
framing a central slow movement.
Some 22 concertos of Vivaldi survive, scored for
various instruments and in various sources, with basso
continuo. Seven of these, here recorded, include the
recorder, while two others offer alternative
instrumentation, suggesting flute or violin as possible
alternatives. The Concerto in G minor, RV 103, is scored
for recorder, oboe, bassoon and harpsichord continuo,
instrumentation particularly effective in this chamber
concerto. The first movement, with the customary
recurrent ritornello, is followed by a Largo duet for
recorder and oboe over the bassoon and harpsichord
accompaniment. The concerto ends with a rapid final
Allegro.
The Concerto in D major, RV 92, is for recorder and
violin, with the bass line entrusted either to bassoon or
cello, here to the latter, which plays a particularly active
part in the opening Allegro. Violin and recorder join in a
moving duet in the second movement, marked
Larghetto, one instrument following and joining with
the other, as in the final Allegro, with the close imitation,
one of the other.
The Concerto in G minor, RV 105, one of five
surviving chamber concertos in this key, is scored for
recorder, oboe, violin and bassoon, with cello and
harpsichord continuo. The Largo is an aria for recorder,
with the bassoon alone providing the bass line. The other
instruments return for the concluding Allegro molto, the
bassoon now resuming its active solo rôle.
Scored for the same forces, recorder, oboe, violin
and bassoon, with cello and harpsichord continuo, the
Concerto in D major, RV 94, opens energetically, with
the violin given the first solo episode, before the
recorder moves into prominence. The following Largo is
again given to recorder, violin and bassoon, the last
providing a bass to the aria of the recorder, while the
violin offers an accompanying broken-chord texture.
For the final Allegro the other instruments return, with
the violin again particularly active and even
stratospheric in a movement of characteristic variety and
invention.
The Concerto in A minor, RV 108, for recorder, two
violins and cello and harpsichord continuo, gives due
prominence to the first of these instruments in the
opening Allegro, with the violins playing a largely
ripieno rôle. They introduce the following Largo, with
its recorder aria, and the concerto ends with a movement
in lively gigue-like figuration.
With recorder, oboe, two violins, and continuo
supplied by cello and harpsichord, the Concerto in C
major, RV 87, opens with what seems about to be a
recorder aria, soon replaced by the vigorous entry of the
whole ensemble, with textures that find a place for the
contrasting of the pair of wind instruments with the two
violins. The slow movement is for recorder and
continuo, again in the form of a moving aria. The oboe
abruptly breaks the mood with the final Allegro assai,
with solo episodes for the two wind instruments, largely
accompanied by the violins and continuo instruments.
The Concerto in G major, RV 101, for recorder,
oboe, violin and bassoon, with cello and harpsichord
continuo presents the ritornello in initial unanimity,
with important solo episodes entrusted to the recorder.
Vivaldi makes use of the whole ensemble in the Largo,
for the most part providing a ripieno accompaniment to
a recorder aria. The recorder remains prominent in the
virtuoso episodes of the closing Allegro.
Keith Anderson
Concerto for Recorder, Oboe and Bassoon in G minor, RV 103 (more info)
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I. Allegro - 4:24
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II. Largo - 4:08
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III. Allegro - 1:53
Concerto for Recorder, Violin and Cello in D major, RV 92 (more info)
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I. Allegro - 3:46
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II. Larghetto - 3:24
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III. Allegro - 3:06
Concerto for Recorder, Oboe, Violin and Bassoon in G minor, RV 105 (more info)
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I. Allegro - 3:15
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II. Largo - 2:11
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III. Allegro molto - 3:18
Concerto for Recorder, Oboe, Violin and Bassoon in D major, RV 94 (more info)
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I. Allegro - 3:37
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II. Largo - 3:23
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III. Allegro - 3:50
Concerto for Recorder and 2 Violins in A minor, RV 108 (more info)
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I. Allegro - 2:56
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II. Largo - 2:50
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III. Allegro - 2:39
Concerto for Recorder, Oboe and 2 Violins in A minor, RV 87 (more info)
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I. Allegro - 3:14
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II. Largo - 2:47
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III. Allegro assai - 2:19
Concerto for Recorder, Oboe, Violin and Bassoon in G major, RV 101 (more info)
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I. Allegro - 4:37
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II. Largo - 2:17
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III. Allegro - 2:48