Luogo e data di registrazione		Amsterdam (Olanda) - gennaio 1977 (op. 1) Amsterdam (Olanda) - novembre 1977 (op. 2)
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer / Engineer		-
	Prima Edizione originale LP		Philips - 6747 443 - (2 LP's) - durata 47' 13" | 48' 09" - (p) 1977 - Analogico Philips - 6769 016 - (3 LP's) - durata 50' 55" | 36' 51" | 47' 04" - (p) 1978 - Analogico
	Note		-

SONATAS, OP. 1 In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries the trio sonata enjoyed in Italy a status comparable with that of the string quartet in Austria during the late eighteenth century: it was a genre which ambitious young composers often chose for their first published opus, and like the string quartet, whose originator and guiding spirit was Haydn, it possessed universally recognised models in the four collections which Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713) brought out between 1681 and 1694. Corelli consolidated the division of the sonata into two types corresponding to two functions. The sonata da chiesa, or church sonata, was performed, like much instrumental music besides, in church services and consisted of a cycle of "abstract" movements, i. e. movements characterised solely by a tempo marking. The sonata da camera, or chamber sonata, was music for the ballrooms of the nobility, consisting in the main of dance movements. The distinction between these two sub-types, far from absolute in Corelli’s own music, tended to weaken as the new century progressed. As the growth of music-publishing in northern Europe attested, sonatas increasingly served purely recreational purposes, so that the church-chamber antithesis became one of style rather than function, hence more susceptible to blurring. The earliest known edition of the 12 "Suonate da camera a tre," Op. 1, by Antonio Vivaldi is that of 1705 by the Venetian printer Giuseppe Sala, of which only the first violin part has survived. It is possible that this edition is a reprint of a lost earlier edition (of 1703?) by Sala; Vivaldi’s clerical status (he was ordained in March 1703) is acknowledged on the title-page but, unaccountably, not his post of violin master at the Ospedale della Pietà, which he had held since September 1703. It is also puzzling that the coat-of-arms of the dedicatee, the Venetian nobleman Annibale Gambara, does not make an appearance, usual in a Sala first edition, on the title-page; instead, Sala has there his own typographical emblem - which one associates with reprints published at his own expense. Vivaldi’s conventionally obsequious dedication contains an attack on unnamed critics, who, he says, "are wont in these times of flaunt their insolence." It was almost customary among composers to complain in their first opus of hostile criticism (the more abjectly to fling themselves at their patron’s feet!), but in Vivaldi’s case one catches a hint of the paranoia which he was to reveal so blatantly in his letters to the Marquis Guido Bentivoglio 30 years later. Like most trio sonatas of the chamber variety, the present works are for two violins and a bass part designated quite explicitly on the title-page for violone (a common term for continuo cello) or harpsichord. Ostensibly, therefore, the cello and harpsichord are alternative, not complementary, instruments. Whereas in churches organs were always available to join the stringed bass instrument and amplify the texture with continuo harmonies, harpsichords would not always have been to hand for the performance of chamber sonatas, particularly in an outdoor setting; this, and the light, more homophonic style of dance movements, may account for the convention of providing a single partbook for the bass. It should be pointed out, nevertheless, that some contemporary sources possess duplicate bass parts, suggesting that, where resources permitted, performers were glad to have both a cello and a harpsichord. Vivaldi’s sonatas follow the traditional da camera plan. An abstract opening movement, generally modelled on the slow introductory movement of the sonata da chiesa and entitled "Preludio", introduces a series of two or three dance movements in binary form chosen from the standard types: Allemanda, Corrente, Sarabanda, Giga, and Gavotta. The Allemanda is a moderately quick dance in common time, the Corrente and Sarabanda quickish dances (with slightly differing rhythmic stylisation) in triple time, the Giga an energetic dance (made slightly grotesque by its wide leaps) in compound time, and the Gavotta a brief, very quick dance in duple or quadruple time. In the Sonatas Nos. 1, 3, 6, 8, and 9 Vivaldi, following Corellian precedent, inserts short abstract movements in slow tempo for the sake of variety. The Op.1sonatas are the only works by Vivaldi so far known to merit the description "immature." This comes out, first, in his over-addiction to certain Corellian formulas (which he may, of course, have picked up at second hand) and, second, in the lack of control in some of his experimentation. The opening of the Preludioto the first sonata,where the violins leapfrog over one another, is purest Corelli, as is the composite opening movement of the fourth sonata. The fifth sonata is greatly indebted in melody and harmony to Corelli’s Violin Sonata, op. 5, No. 10 (1700). The last sonata is a special case. Sonatas conceived as a single, long variation movement, like the chaconnes in Corelli’s Op. 2 and Purcell’s "Sonatas in Four Parts," were a recognised, if rare, form of chamber sonata. The last sonata of Corelli’s Op. 5, a set of variations on a 16-bar theme in chaconne rhythm, reputedly of Spanish origin, known as "La follia" (Madness), spawned a host of direct imitations, including follie by T. A. Vitali (Op. 4, 1701), Albicastro (Op. 5, 1703), and Reali (Op. 1, 1709). Vivaldi’s imagination, like that of Liszt or Ravel, was stimulated by the demands of virtuosity (inherent in a variation movement, where little changes apart from the figuration), making this sonata one of the best in the set and worthy to stand beside its model. An example of Vivaldi’s striving for originality at its least successful is the chromatic Preludio of the third sonata. Some of the effects strike home: the ostinato figuration of the Capriccio in Sonata No. 1; the lyrical triplets in the Allemanda of Sonata No. 7; the unaccompanied bass at the start of the unusually extended Gavotta in Sonata No. 10; the opening on first violin alone (with a "fade-out"!) of the Giga in Sonata No. 11, and the written-out varied reprises in the following Gavotta. Vivaldi left eight extant sonatas for two violins and bass besides those comprising Op. 1, none exactly comparable. The two chamber sonatas in Op. 5 (1716) are heavily influenced by the style of the "solo" sonata (in whose company they appear), while four works preserved in Turin manuscripts are really violin duos with optional bass. The remaining works consist of a probably unauthentic church sonata in Wiesentheid and a sonata of mixed church-chamber type in Lund. Vivaldi’s Op. 1, therefore, offers unique evidence of his schooling in, and contribution to, one of the main genres of his youth and early manhood. SONATAS, OP. 2 On December 20, 1708 the Venetians learned that the young king Frederik IV of Denmark and Norway who had much enjoyed an earlier visit in 1693 when still crown prince, intended to renew his acquaintance with their city and sample the delights of its carnival. This was to be no official state visit, as Frederik did not wish to be distracted by regal cares; where protocol demanded a rank, he was to be known merely as Count of Oldenburg, one of his minor titles. Feverish preparations were made to receive the visitor; four nobles agreed to act as hosts and the savant Scipione Maffei was engaged as the King’s guide. Frederik made his entry on Saturday December 29, and paid his first visit to the opera the same evening. Next morning he attended Mass in the chapel of the Pietà. The service included a Credo and an Agnus Dei with instrumental accompaniment as well as instrumental music. Francesco Casparini, the Pietà’s musical director, was absent (perhaps he was supervising rehearsals of a new opera, "Engelberta," of which he was joint composer); his place at the rostrum was taken by an unidentified "maestro." It is very possible that this deputy was none other than Vivaldi. At any rate he can hardly have failed to take part in the performance and make himself known to the king. This chance encounter soon bore fruit. Already in late 1708 the printer Antonio Bortoli had announced the impending publication of a collection of violin sonatas, Op. 2, by Vivaldi, in a catalogue brought out together with the libretto of Caldara’s opera "Sofonisba." Vivaldi seized this golden opportunity to dedicate the works to Frederik. Perhaps he was in time to  present a copy of his new publication to Frederik before the king departed from Venice, on March 6,1709. If Vivaldi’s Op. 1 can be regarded as an almost mandatory act of homage to his elder contemporary Corelli, Op. 2 shows equal deference to the Roman master, modelling itself, like countless contemporary collections, on Corelli’s Op. 5. More precisely, the second half of the Corelli opus, which contains six chamber sonatas (the first half consists of church sonatas), is the starting-point. The Italian sonata da camera differs from the keyboard suite in that the order of the dances is flexible. In Vivaldi’s Op. 2, for instance, the giga is the concluding dance in the second, third, fifth, sixth, and tenth sonatas, but becomes the opening dance in the first and eighth sonatas. However, the gavotta, the briefest and lightest of the dances, never occupies other than last position. In some of his sonatas Vivaldi substitutes on "abstract" movement for a dance movement. The second, third, and twelfth have short through-composed grave, or adagio movements akin in style to the internal slow movement of a church sonata; while the fast movements variously entitled capriccio (Nos.9 and12) and fantasia (No.11) stretch the technique of the performers almost in the spirit of the emerging solo concerto.The Preludio a capriccio of the second sonata opens like the very first sonata of Corelli’s Op. 5, adagio sections alternating with arpeggiated cadenzas over pedal points, but rather surprisingly continues as a through-composed presto. The bass part in Op. 2 (the title page gives the harpsichord as the accompanying instrument) is more active than in any of Vivaldi’s later collections of solo sonatas. Sometimes it has virtuosic "divisions" - elaborations in short note-values of a simple harmonic foundation, as in the closing section of the Preludio a capriccio just cited. Often, however, the bass shares the principal thematic material in imitative fashion with the violin, so that the two parts have a high degree of interdependence. Already in Op. 5, published as a sequel to Op. 2, the bass is less adventurous; in the 12 "Manchester" sonatas, a manuscript set dating from no earlier than c. 1725, it has become a mere rhythmic - scarcely even harmonic - prop. One has to go back to Op. 2, rooted in an older tradition, to find good examples in Vivaldi’s music of contrapuntal writing in two parts. Whereas the Op. 1 trio sonatas have moments of gaucheness due to inexperience, the Op. 2 sonatas are fully mature in regard to compositional technique. Stylistically they are less mature as, on one hand, they are greatly indebted to Corelli for their rhythmic stylisation and the cast of their themes and, on the other, they contain relatively few of the Vivaldian idiosyncrasies richly in evidence from Op. 3 (1711) onwards. A much-cited example of such indebtedness is the Allemanda of the fourth sonata, which begins with the same melodic and harmonic outline as the Gavotta in Corelli's tenth sonata (other variants of the same idea appear in the F major works in Vivaldi’s Op. 1 and Op. 3). Because of this close adherence to Corellian norms the sonatas of Vivaldi's Op. 2 bear a strong likeness to numerous contemporary works for the same medium, including Handel’s Op. 1 and Albinonrs Op. 6. No other works by Vivaldi are closer to the mainstream of Italian instrumental music. It remains to single out a few movements for special mention. The recitative-like Adagio of the second sonata, a mere eight bars in length, opens and closes in the relative minor key (unlike the church sonata, the chamber sonata rarely has a movement in a foreign key). Invertible counterpoint is charmingly displayed in the Preludio of the fourth sonata. The Corrente of the same work was included in the anthology "Medulla musicae" published in London c. 1727, where it was mistakenly attributed to Michele Mascitti (c. 1664-1760). (English musicians must have been very familiar with Vivaldi’s Op. 2 through the pirated edition by Roger of Amsterdam as well as a native edition by Walsh.) The broad sweep of the violin and bass lines and some unusually wide-ranging modulation lend memorability to the Preludio of the ninth sonata, whose Capriccio generates great excitement with its quick-fire imitations. The bubbling Capriccio of the twelfth sonata shows the closeness of Vivaldi the composer to Vivaldi the performer and points in the direction of "L’Estro armonico." Michael Talbot