Post by erik on Mar 25, 2023 18:43:07 GMT -5
This week's Classical Works Spotlight looks at a very intriguing work by the Italian-born master of the Baroque period who was known as "The Red Priest".
Vivaldi: CONCERTO FOR VIOLIN AND WINDS IN G MINOR, RV. 577
Known during his lifetime as The Red Priest, Antonio Vivaldi was clearly the top composer to have come from Italy during the Baroque period of music which was otherwise dominated by, among others, Henry Purcell, Johann Sebastian Bach, and George Frideric Handel. While it is true that Vivaldi is primarily known for that series of four violin concertos known as “The Four Seasons”, plus an elaborate setting of the “Gloria” for chorus and orchestra, his virtuosity with the violin led him to compose hundreds of concertos for his chosen instrument, primarily involving full string orchestra, but occasionally with other instruments involved. Such was the case with his Concerto For Violin and Winds In G Minor, which he composed in 1720. This work includes among its instrumentation pairs of oboes and recorders; a bassoon; and continuo (in this case a harpsichord). As with a lot of Vivaldi’s output that was not “The Four Seasons” or “Gloria”, however, this work and most of the hundreds of others he composed in the concerto form didn’t see many performances, let alone recordings, until the movement to perform works of centuries past utilizing performance practices of those times, the instruments of those exact times, or, more usually, both, came into being during the last third of the 20th century. The importance of Vivaldi in America was taken up by the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, a period-instrument orchestra based in the San Francisco Bay Area, which did a large survey of Vivaldi’s concertos for violin and other string instruments under its conductor and founder Nicolas McGegan.
Violin: ELIZABETH BLUMENSTOCK
Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra/NICOLAS MCGEGAN (Reference)
Included):
CONCERTO IN F MAJOR FOR VIOLIN AND WINDS, RV. 569
VIOLIN CONCERTO IN A MAJOR, RV. 552
CONCERTO IN F MAJOR FOR VIOLIN AND WINDS, RV. 568
CONCERTO IN D MAJOR FOR VIOLIN, WIND INSTRUMENTS, AND TWO ORGANS, RV. 562
Vivaldi: CONCERTO FOR VIOLIN AND WINDS IN G MINOR, RV. 577
Known during his lifetime as The Red Priest, Antonio Vivaldi was clearly the top composer to have come from Italy during the Baroque period of music which was otherwise dominated by, among others, Henry Purcell, Johann Sebastian Bach, and George Frideric Handel. While it is true that Vivaldi is primarily known for that series of four violin concertos known as “The Four Seasons”, plus an elaborate setting of the “Gloria” for chorus and orchestra, his virtuosity with the violin led him to compose hundreds of concertos for his chosen instrument, primarily involving full string orchestra, but occasionally with other instruments involved. Such was the case with his Concerto For Violin and Winds In G Minor, which he composed in 1720. This work includes among its instrumentation pairs of oboes and recorders; a bassoon; and continuo (in this case a harpsichord). As with a lot of Vivaldi’s output that was not “The Four Seasons” or “Gloria”, however, this work and most of the hundreds of others he composed in the concerto form didn’t see many performances, let alone recordings, until the movement to perform works of centuries past utilizing performance practices of those times, the instruments of those exact times, or, more usually, both, came into being during the last third of the 20th century. The importance of Vivaldi in America was taken up by the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, a period-instrument orchestra based in the San Francisco Bay Area, which did a large survey of Vivaldi’s concertos for violin and other string instruments under its conductor and founder Nicolas McGegan.
Violin: ELIZABETH BLUMENSTOCK
Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra/NICOLAS MCGEGAN (Reference)
Included):
CONCERTO IN F MAJOR FOR VIOLIN AND WINDS, RV. 569
VIOLIN CONCERTO IN A MAJOR, RV. 552
CONCERTO IN F MAJOR FOR VIOLIN AND WINDS, RV. 568
CONCERTO IN D MAJOR FOR VIOLIN, WIND INSTRUMENTS, AND TWO ORGANS, RV. 562