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Antonio Vivaldi

Concerto in C Major, RV 114 Play Play

Ensemble

Recorded on 01/08/2008, uploaded on 10/14/2010

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Concerto in C Major, RV 114 Antonio Vivaldi

Allegro, Adagio, Ciaccona

Antonio Vivaldi needs no introduction to audiences these days—nevertheless, because we have program notes for Baroque Band's concerts, we deserve to know a bit about him. He is considered today as one of the most original and imaginative composers of the entire baroque era—among the many musicians who fell under his influence is Johann Sebastian Bach. Whenever we hear motoric rhythms in Bach's music, it is well to remember that these were largely inspired by the concertos of Vivaldi. Although his father was a baker by trade, we assume that he played the violin fairly well, well enough to appear beside his son in the "Guida de' forstieri" (the guide for foreigners) by Coronelli. We know that Vivaldi took holy orders (hence, his nickname, Il prete rosso, or, the red priest). He seemed to suffer chronically from a respiratory disorder, "strettezza di petto," or a narrowness of the breast, which has been interpreted both as asthma and angina pectoris. In September of 1703, Vivaldi was named maestro di violino at the "Ospedale della Pieta," a conventual orphanage where young ladies who fell "into the cracks of society," as it were, were housed and educated. Their musical ensembles were well known to travellers of the day (we shall hear more about this in our next program, "The Grand Tour."), and their reputation was high, indeed. Vivaldi's position at the Pieta was most interesting, indeed. He was often dismissed and rehired for various reasons, one of which was that an elite group of young lady-musicians, known as the "figlie privilegiate di coro," often attained such a high level of proficiency that they were permitted to teach their younger colleagues, therefore sometimes rendering Vivaldi, himself, redundant!

Vivaldi was a prolific composer—he composed in many genres, and he is best remembered for his many concertos for one or more instruments. Indeed,it is for the concerto that Vivaldi is most often singled out as an innovator during his own time. The concerto, by the time of Vivaldi, had been around for nearly a century—it originated as a "struggle," (concertare) or a conversation between voices and instruments, but by Vivaldi's time, had come to mean a piece of music in which one or more instruments were pitted against a larger ensemble. Vivaldi is particularly known for solo concertos for the violin, but they were, by no means, the only type of concerto that he wrote. There exists an apocryphal comment from Vivaldi in which he boasted that he could compose a concerto faster than the copyists could churn out the parts for the players! David Schrader