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The most
constant factor running
through Vivald's
manysided career is his
association with the Pio
Ospedale della Pietà,
which he served at
different times as violin
teacher, leader of the
orchestra, and regular
purveyor of new
compositions. The Pietà
was one of Venice’s four
socalled conservatories;
in actual fact, these were
state-supported charitable
institutions for destitute
or abandoned girls, most
of whose inmates received
no musical training to
speak of - but the
description is justified,
for all four maintained
excellent choirs and
orchestras whose
performances at services
in the respective chapels
attracted enthusiastic
audiences. No visit to
Venice, even by royalty,
was complete without an
opportunity to hear these
famed female virtuosos.
The Pietà’s
girls (this term can
mislead, for several
inmates, whom devotion to
music, piety, or lack of
personal charms kept in
the unmarried state,
lingered on into middle
age) were organised in a
strict hierarchy based on
age and merit. To take a
solo part was a
distinction eagerly
coveted and jealously
rationed. The number and
variety of solo parts,
instrumental or vocal, in
the works Vivaldi wrote
for the Pietà stemmed
not merely from a fertile
musical imagination or a
wish to delight and
surprise the audience
(from whose view the girls
were hidden, for the sake
of modesty, by a lattice):
it also reflected the
social order within the
Pietà’s
walls.
Vivaldi seems to have
composed with unbelievable
facility and speed. We are
told that he could write
the score of a concerto
quicker than the copyist
could transcribe it. In
the concerto, he did not
bind himself to one specific
form, like, for instance,
Corelli who constructed
his concertos on the
principle of “timbre
arrangement,” or Torelli
who differentiated
thematically between solo
and tutti. To
describe Vivaldi’s wealth
of varied forms is not
possible in a few words.
There are concertos of his
in which the solo and ripieno
parts are strictly defined
in well-balanced phrases
and others where the solo
springs in small particles
from the whole. Vivaldi’s
style of composition is
closely connected with the
concertante element. His
music is vigorous and
sensitive. It has
completely avoided the
restrictions of the fugal
manner of older masters,
and is built for the most
part on a homophonic
basis. Vivaldi liked to
keep the upper parts and
bass distinct from each
other, both in rhythm and
motives. Now and then, he
has solo passages
accompanied by unison
violins only, without
sustained basses, after
the Neapolitan custom,
and, like all Venetians,
he loves the big
impressive unison passages
at the beginning of a
movement. These are true
Baroque practices, which
frequently indicate the
character of a piece in a
few notes.
CONCERTO IN A, RV 158 FOR
STRINGS AND CONTINUO
The impressive Concerto in
A, RV 158, is formally so
concentrated and free of
purely virtuosic features,
that it might be regarded
as a sinfonia, in the
sense of an overture -
perhaps to an opera. It
markedly lacks the
decorative display of
brilliant passages and
figures which
distinguishes the true
“concerto’”, which is
essentially closer to the
early classical sinfonia
than to the concerto
grosso.
CONCERTO IN F, RV 542 FOR
VIOLIN, ORGAN, STRINGS,
AND CONTINUO
This' concerto is a highly
original work for solo
violin, solo organ,
strings, and a basso
continuo which would
presumably have been
provided by a harpsichord.
It is one of the earliest
of the few works in which
the organ competes in
virtuoso manner with the
solo violin in the form of
a double concerto. This
particular piece would
have interested Bach, who
introduced the same
principle into chamber
music in his six violin
Sonatas. It
is in any case one of the
composer’s “progressive”
works. It was intended
either for a performance
in church, or for a
concert in the Ospedale
della Pietà.
CONCERTO
lN G
MINOR, RV 153 FOR STRINGS
AND CONTINUO
The Concerto in G
minor seems similar to the
A major Concerto in its
“symphonic” structure, and
also avoids virtuoso
passages for solo violins,
being worked throughout
for the full ensemble. A
closer study shows that
the first movement is
built as a trio sonata for
string orchestra. The two
violin groups contend
motivistically with each
other, while violas and
basses provide the
continuo foundation. Bach
must have known this work
for the principal theme of
the first movement is
remarkably similar to
Bach’s two-part Invention
in F: in both pieces the
theme appears in stretto.
The extensive use of pedal
point in all three
movements is also akin to
Bach’s own usage.
CONCERTO
lN B FLAT, RV 527 FOR TWO
VIOLINS, STRINGS, AND
CONTINUO
The opening theme of this
concerto is distinguished
by an extreme swing of
ascending and descending
motion. This theme further
appears in stretto
through all the voices, a
technical device which
produces a remarkable
contrapuntal effect. The
whole concerto allows
ample scope for virtuoso
display by the two solo
violins, but contrary to
the usual practice in
Baroque music, these
concertante solo parts
take up the opening motive
of the movement and work
it out. For 12 bars in the
middle of the movement,
the ripieno is
silent, while the two solo
violins move in strict
contrary motion,
accompanied only by the
bass. In the middle
movement, the basses hand
over the support of the
solo violins to the ripieno
violins and violas playing
in unison. This is a
technical device
particularly
characteristic of Vivaldi.
CONCERTO
IN G MINOR, RV 531 FOR TWO
CELLOS,
STRINGS, AND CONTINUO
The Concerto in G minor,
RV 531, in which two
cellos take the solo
parts, is a valuable
rarity not only for its
scoring, but also for the
musical content. One must
admire the instinct with
which Vivaldi drew a
natural plan for the
structure of the whole
from the deep register of
the solo instruments. The
work does not start in the
usual way with a tutti:
the two cellos begin
cautiously and build up
the movement. The
orchestra gradually joins
in their conversation,
until the full tutti
is reached. The lovely
slow movement is for the
cellos alone, with a
delicate continuo
accompaniment.
CONCERTO
IN E
MINOR, RV 134 FOR STRINGS
AND CONTINUO
The first movement of this
work in E minor is a pearl
of Vivaldi's
invention. One might
expect it to be
“symphonic,” since it is
scored entirely for tutti,
but the chromatically
descending thematic lines
and the magnificent
counterpoint prove it to
be truly "Baroque".
CONCERTO
IN A MINOR, RV 523 FOR TWO
VIOLINS, STRINGS, AND CONTINUO
RV 523 is a bold, mature
work which makes an
interesting stylistic
contrast with the much
better known RV 522 (Op. 3
No. 8), a probably much
earlier concerto in the
same key. Its slow
movement, where the
orchestra falls silent,
shows considerable
operatic influence in its
melodic shape. An unusual
feature (for Vivaldi)
appears at the end of the
finale: a coda which
develops, rather than
simply repeats, previous tutti
material.
CONCERTO
IN C
MINOR, RV 401 FOR GELLO,
STRINGS, AND CONTINUO
Strangely, the earliest
Vivaldi concertos that can
be dated with any
precision are not for
violin but for cello. They
were copied down by a
German musician visiting
Venice in the winter of
1708-09. There is no
evidence that RV 401 is
one of these pioneer
works, but its severity of
style and the remarkable
freedom from operatic
influence in its melody
suggest a fairly early
date. The concerto is
“homotonal” - that is,
each of its three
movements is in the same
key. This homogeneity
spills over into the
thematic material, so that
an attentive listener can
easily discern
correspondences of melody
and harmony. Vivaldi is at
his deepest, figuratively
as well as literally, when
writing for the cello; the
gaiety with which we
associate his violin works
becomes transmuted into
melancholy.
CONCERTO IN E, RV 271 FOR
VIOLIN, STRINGS, AND
CONTINUO ”L’AMOROSO”
Vivaldi wrote several
violin concertos that are
neither programmatic (in
the sense of depicting a
course of events) nor
descriptive, yet
encapsulate a certain mood
summed up by an original
nickname. “Il riposo”
(Rest) and “Il piacere”
(Pleasure) are examples;
”L'amoroso”
(The
Lover), the title by which
RV 271 is known, is
another. For this work
Vivaldi chooses a key (E
major) which, as we know
from his operatic music,
he favoured for the
expression of languorous
and amorous feelings,
perhaps because the more
strident open strings are
less in evidence.
Significantly, too, the
opening movement is in the
gentle rhythm of a
siciliano. Accompaniment
to the soloist is kept
very light throughout;
lower strings and continuo
are altogether absent from
the very brief E minor Cantabile.
The frequent suppression
of the bass instruments
and the proliferation of
grace notes (slides and
appoggiaturas) suggest a
relatively late date of
composition - perhaps the
1720’s.
CONCERTO
IN B FLAT, RV 547 FOR
VIOLIN, CELLO,
STRINGS, AND CONTINUO
Vivaldi left only two
surviving concertos for
one violin, one cello, and
strings. RV 547 is an
uncommonly vital work,
even for Vivaldi. Broadly
speaking, the relationship
of the two soloists is
along the lines of RV 523.
Their contrast of register
adds another dimension,
however, as we see in the
first solo episode of the
first movement, where they
play not in conventional
parallel thirds, but in
parallel seventeenths -
much more difficult to
play in tune and
infinitely more exciting!
The canonic snatches in
the slow movement, which
give rise to some slightly
unusual harmony, are a
typically Vivaldian
device. In the outer
movements the extrovert
treatment of the cello,
infected by the spirit of
the violin, is in sharp
contrast to the broodings
of RV 401.
CONCERTO
IN G, RV 575 FOR TWO
VIOLINS, TWO CELLOS,
STRINGS, AND CONTINUO
RV 575 is an energetic,
frothy work, full of the
simple figures - rushing
scales and striding
arpeggios - that lie at
the heart of the Vivaldian
style. Much of the music
is laid out as a dialogue
between paired violins and
cellos, although more
complex textures are not
shunned. The elegaic style
of the slow movement may
owe something to the
double oboe concertos in
the Op. 7 and Op. 9 of
Vivaldi's
Venetian contemporary
Tomaso Albinoni, which
have the same dense
sonority and often the
same lilting
rhythm.
CONCERTO
IN B FLAT, RV 525 FOR TWO
VIOLINS, STRINGS, AND CONTINUO
Of all the possible
combinations of solo
instruments that for two
violins (as in RV 525) is
by far the most common in
Vivaldi’s music, tracing
its ancestry back to
Torelli. There are 25 such
concertos extant in a
complete state. To judge
from certain stylistic
features - for instance,
the frequent appoggiaturas
and the presence of
Lombardic rhythms - RV 525
must be a latish work
composed after 1720. A
particularly attractive
and original-sounding
passage in this concerto
is the beginning of the
second solo episode in the
lively finale, where both
soloists play in
double-stops, first in
turn and then together.
CONCERTO
IN A, RV 546 FOR VIOLIN,
CELLO, STRINGS, AND
CONTINUO
RV 546 and a companion
work, RV 547, are the two
Vivaldi concertos to
feature a solo cello in
addition to a solo violin.
In terms of sheer sound
the combination is very
successful. Vivaldi, like
all his contemporaries,
was fond of extended
passages where the two
most prominent instruments
play in thirds. The effect
can be rather ordinary,
but when, as so often
here, the thirds are
expanded to become tenths
or even seventeenths,
interesting sonorities
result. The autograph
score of RV 546
exemplifies Vivaldi’s
musical opportunism. It
was written out on
10-stave manuscript paper.
This number of staves
accommodates two systems
of five staves - the
number required for an
ordinary violin concerto.
The addition of an extra
part (for solo cello)
entailed either leaving
four staves
blank on each page or
dropping one of the
orchestral parts. He
took the second course,
directing that the first
violin part be derived
from the solo violin
part (in tutti
passages) or the bass
part (in episodes), as
appropriate. At some
later date he
redesignated the
concerto for two viole
all’inglese (an
instrument resembling
the viola d’amore, in
which Vivaldi gave
tuition at the Pietà),
leaving the text
unaltered except for the
notation of an
independent first violin
part in a few places.
CONCERTO
IN B FLAT, RV 553 FOR
FOUR VIOLINS, STRINGS,
AND CONTINUO
Outside four concertos
in Op. 3 and the curious
“echo” concerto RV 552
(where only one of the
violins is a true
soloist), RV 553 is
Vivaldi’s sole concerto
for four solo violins, a
combination more popular
among composers of the
Roman school (e.g. Mossi
and Locatelli) than of
the Venetian. Orchestral
strings may be added in
tutti passages,
but they are not
essential, as the
soloists come together
at these points, merging
their four parts into
two or even one, thus
producing “orchestral”
sound. Pincherle
commented on the
quasi-Wagnerian effect
of the cadenza opening
this work, in which the
violins play rapid
figurations over a tonic
pedal point.
CONCERTO IN F, RV 551
FOR THREE VIOLINS,
STRINGS, AND CONTINUO
This concerto may be
regarded as an
intermediate form
between the two kinds of
concertos, since the
solo part is after all
shared by three violins.
Yet thematically (and
this brings the work
close to the solo
concerto) they are
treated not as a group
by as independent
voices. In
the first and third
movements, all three are
given alternate access
to the thematic
material. In the second,
however, the third
violin has the melody
while the other two
soloists comment with
arpeggios and pizzicato.
CONCERTO IN D, RV 564
FOR TWO VIOLINS, TWO
CELLOS, STRINGS, AND
CONTINUO
Scored, like the G major
Concerto, RV 575, for
strings and continuo
plus four obbligato
instruments (two violins
and two cellos), this
work is a fine example
of Vivaldi’s art of
giving each of his
concertos - in total
nearly 500, all
corresponding to the
same general structural
pattern - its own
character. There is
plenty of interesting
passagework and
interplay between the
solo instruments to be
admired here, making for
some very colourful
effects.
CONCERTO
IN A, RV 552 FOR TWO
VIOLINS, STRINGS, AND
CONTINUO “PER ECO IN
LONTANO”
The title of this
concerto, "Per eco in
lontano” (with an echo
in the distance)
emphasises the special
character of the work.
And Vivaldi does indeed
draw special effects
from the “dialogue”
between the two solo
violins, the second
being the “echo”
instrument. Vivaldi was
a master of such effects
as is shown by a great
many of his
compositions. However,
the fact that he chose
the echo as the
dominating aspect of
this concerto makes it
something of a curiosity
among his compositions.
CONCERTO
IN D MINOR, RV 129 FOR
STRINGS AND GONTINUO
“MADRIGALESCO”
This work is actually a
concerto (grosso)
without solo
instruments. The
harmonically rich Adagio
is followed by an Allegro
movement which is
characterised by its
imitative effects and
corresponds to the
pattern of a motet - as
is indicated by the
title "Madrigalesco"
Here shortphrased
motives are developed in
a contrapuntal manner.
Two movements - Adagio
and Allegro - in
the same style
follow. The second Adagio
leads away from the major
close of the first Allegro
towards the dominant A.
This brilliantly conceived
movement stands out
through its harmonic
boldness. The final
movement starts in D minor
and does not leave this
tonality until the major
close.
SONATA
A QUATTRO IN
E FLAT, RV 130 “AL SANTO
SEPOLCRO”
This E flat Sonata “At the
Holy Sepulchre”
corresponds to the same
formal pattern as the
Concerto “Madrigalesco,”
except that the Largo
movement is followed by a
somewhat calm Allegro.
Here we have a good
example of the Baroque sonata
da chiesa. Thus the
intertwining of the
individual parts is not,
as is the case in the D
minor Concerto, in the
harmonically rich vocal
style of the motet but
conceived in the
instrumental style of a
chamber work. The slow
movement is broad in
harmony, the individual
notes of chords being
split up into short note
values and spread out over
the whole tonal spectrum.
This tendency of splitting
up harmonic stresses into
shorter note values is
also apparent in the main
movement. However, the
repetition of individual
notes prevails. The
suspensions of the
opening, which are imbued
with mourning, are
contrasted with a motive
in semiquavers which is
full of declamatory
feeling.
CONCERTOS RV 157, 126,
154, 138, 141, 114 AND 119
FOR STRINGS AND CONTINUO -
SINFONIA RV 149
In
1739 Charles de Brosses, a
French visitor to Venice,
wrote to his friend de
Blancey: “They have here a
kind of music with which
we in France are
insufficiently acquainted
and which seems to me to
be more suitable than
countless others for
performance in small
gardens - I
am speaking of grand
concertos for instrumental
ensembles where there is
no solo violin.” In
fact, such concertos for
strings alone with
continuo were the
prototypes of the concerto
form, at any rate outside
Rome: we find them in the
early collections, c.
1700, of pioneers like
Torelli, Albinoni, and
Albicastro, and they
continued to be written in
Italy, often under the
name of concerto a
quattro, long after
the concerto with a violin
soloist established itself
as the dominant type. De
Brosses’s remark confirms
what we know from an
examination of music
preserved in northern
European libraries - that
the concerto a quattro
travelled little outside Italy.
It is worth mentioning,
however, a manuscript
containing 12 splendid
concertos of this type by
Vivaldi (including the
concertos RV 114, 119, and
154 recorded here)
preserved in the library
of the Paris
Conservatoire; these could
connceivably be the
concertos that de Brosses
in the same letter
reported buying (at a
steep price!)
from Vivaldi.
The mutual influence of
the concerto a quattro
and the sinfonia a
quattro was
understandably great. For
this reason, the catalogue
of Vivaldi’s works by
Peter Ryom classifies the
two genres under a single
heading. Nevertheless,
there are some concertos
among the 60 works listed
that would never be taken
for sinfonias, and viceversa.
The serious, contrapuntal
nature of RV 119 and 157
stamps them indelibly as
concertos, while the
uncomplicated, vigorous
writing of RV 149, often
with the two violin parts
in unison, leaves no doubt
that it is a sinfonia.
Among these relatively
“pure” types one finds
several hybrids: the
opening movements of RV
141 and 154, for instance,
bespeak the concerto, but
their lightweight
binary-form finales would
be at home in a sinfonia.
If
his solo concertos show
Vivaldi to his best
advantage as a
violinist-composer, his
string concertos without
soloist display better
than any other works his
gifts as a composer pure
and simple. Rigorous
contrapuntal devices are
quite often apparent in
them, as in the ground
bass underpinning the
first movement of RV 157
and the finale of RV 114,
and the recourse to fugato
treatment in the first
movement of RV 119. It
is difficult to
characterise the form of
the outer movements (those
in binary or variation
form apart). At a pinch
one can equate it with the
form found in solo
concertos, which is built
around the alternation of
ritornelli
and episodes. The problem
with this approach is that
so many of the “ritornelli”
modulate after the fashion
of episodes, while so many
“episodes” are entirely
dependent on ritornello
material. Perhaps it would
be better merely to say
that Vivaldi first resents
in succession a small
number of ideas, and then
proceeds to develop or
recapitulate them, varying
their order freely.
One of the concertos on
this recording, RV 114, is
of particular interest.
Like many of his Italian
contemporaries, Vivaldi
occasionally simulated the
French style of his time,
often in homage to a
French patron. The opening
movement is dominated by
pompous-sounding dotted
rhythms, a familiar
hallmark of the French
style. Then, after a
two-bar Adagio
link, we are treated to a
lengthy chaconne. This
movement belongs to the
type of chaconne where a
ground bass rather than a
harmonic framework
provides the link between
one variation and the
next. The bass is a
favourite ostinato pattern
of the time, well known
from the first eight bars
of Bach’s “Goldberg”
Variations. We meet it
again in Couperin’s “La
françoise”
sonata, and in several
movements by Vivaldi,
including the finale, for
chorus, of his opera “Il
Giustino”
(Rome, 1724), borrowed in
his serenata “La
Senna festeggiante,” a
work written for a French
court occasion.
RV. 149 is one of
Vivaldi’s few precisely
datable instrumental
works. Together with three
concertos, it was
performed in conjunction
with a vocal work (not by
Vivaldi), “Il
coro delle Muse,” on the
occasion of a visit (March
21, 1740) by the
Prince-Elector of Saxony
to the Pietà.
Its galant
mannerisms betray its late
date of composition. A
typically Vivaldian piece
of imaginative scoring
occurs in the slow
movement, where some of
the first and second
violins are directed to
play pizzicato like the
lower strings, while the
remainder play with their
bows.
SINFONIAS RV 137, 168,
132, 116, 131, AND 112 - CONCERTO
A QUATTRO RV 156
Although the sinfonia
a quattro and the concerto
a quattro of the
early eighteenth century
were written for exactly
the same forces -
orchestral strings in four
parts with continuo -
their function and, to a
large extent, their style
were dissimilar. The
sinfonia (disregarding a
special use of the term to
denote a sonata-like
composition, as in
Vivaldi’s Sonata “Al Santo
Sepolcro”) was an operatic
overture, whereas the
concerto’s context of
performance was less
specific, including church
services, theatrical
performances (as entr’acte
music), and private or
public concerts.
Both genres came to
adopt a cycle of three
movements
(fast-slow-fast), but it
is noticeable that in the
sinfonia the finale is
fleeter, lighter, and
briefer than the first
movement, while the
concerto maintains a
stricter equilibrium. The
sinfonia also tends to be
more treble-dominated, the
two violins often playing
in unison and the viola
either supplying an
unobtrusive middle part or
doubling the bass an
octave higher; in the
concerto there is often
much contrapuntal
interplay between the
violins. In
slow movements the
sinfonia favours a cantabile
upper line in the style of
an aria, whereas the
concerto exploits many
other possibilities.
Lastly, the sinfonia
cultivates a rather unruly
type of virtuosity in
which weight of sound per
se is an important
factor (perhaps in order
to call a chattering
audience to attention);
the concerto adopts a more
refined approach, in which
brilliance and delicacy
are not mutually
exclusive. The typical
sinfonia and concerto are
thus quite different,
though there can exist
marginal works which fit
either genre reasonably
well. This explains how a
few Vivaldi works
originally conceived as
sinfonias could later be
redesignated “concertos,”’
and vice versa.
In
Vivaldi’s day operatic
overtures bore no thematic
or other relevance to the
operas before which they
stood; in fact, they were
written out in separate
fascicles so that they
could be transferred from
an old opera to a new one
if need arose. Visitors
from abroad to Italian
centres of opera often
obtained copies of
sinfonias as souvenirs of
performances. Back in
their own countries, they
would have the sinfonias
performed as independent
concert works - the direct
ancestors of the classical
symphony. The surviving
sources of these sinfonias
usually give no indication
of the opera from which
they were extracted. It
seems that Italian
composers approved of the
cultivation of their
sinfonias as independent
works; for example, there
exists an autograph
manuscript of five
sinfonias by Vivaldi’s
contemporary and
fellow-Venetian Benedetto
Marcello (1686-1739)
compiled for a certain
Monsieur Drex.
Of the six sinfonias on
this record two deserve
especial mention - RV 168,
because it is written,
most unusually for a
sinfonia, in a minor key,
and RV 132, on account of
its advanced style
reminiscent of Sammartini
and the Bach sons. The
possibility that RV 132,
attributed to Vivaldi in
its only source (a copy in
West Berlin), is actually
by another composer must
remain open.
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