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Vivaldi’s op.6 concertos first appeared in print in Amsterdam in 1719. However, this edition was unreliable in the extreme. Scoring was incorrect, the number of works indistinct, random movements separated from their correct work, and a host of other errors. What is clear though is that these concertos are a decisive step forward from the works found in opp. 3 and 4. For example, all follow the fast-slow-fast pattern of the three movement concerto. The solo violin has prominence, so we are moving away from the concerto-grosso style. These recordings are the world premiere of the new critical edition by Alessandro Borin, Istituto Italiano Antonio Vivaldi, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice.

These performances of Vivaldi’s violins concertos Op. 6 are a far cry from the elegant and charming performances of past generations: played on period instruments Vivaldi sounds powerful, vibrant, full of passion and drama.

The “one player per part” formation is based on recent research by English scholar Richard Maunder, and provide a close, immediate sound, as it might have been heard in a Venetian Palace. This release is the first of a prestigious Vivaldi project: the complete Opp. 1-12 concertos played by L’Arte dell’Arco, conducted and played by Federico Guglielmo!

It is remarkable that concertos by Vivaldi are still awaiting their first recordings, and this CD programmes 8 ‘solemn’ concertos. Solemn in this context usually meant a slow introduction, acting as a prelude to the following 3 movements. Vivaldi was a master at creating concertos from other works, and these were known as ‘pasticcio’ concertos. For example, sinfonias or overtures to his many operas provided a happy hunting ground for such concertos, and on this CD the concertos are a mix of Vivaldi’s pasticcios and those of the Pablo Queipo de Llano, a Vivaldi scholar and author the comprehensive CD booklet essay.

To illustrate how adept Vivaldi was at turning existing works to new uses, the finale of RV197 was originally the double fugue from the overture to the serenata La senna festeggiante RV693. This had in turn been adapted by Vivaldi from the closing section of Lotti’s Moralita d’una perla. The opening movement of RV155 was reused by Vivaldi for his Salve Regina RV618 The tradition of pasticcio concertos arranged from other composer’s works was common practice at the Dresden court, where the director was Johann Georg Pisendal, a pupil of Vivaldi. Many movements by Vivaldi were found among the manuscripts in Dresden, and form the basis for these reconstructions.

Period instrument performances.

Extensive booklet note by the editor of the concertos.

New recording made in 2009 in Venice.

Though several of Vivaldi’s most delightful concertos are written for the flute, he left relatively little chamber music for the instrument: the ‘Il Pastor Fido’ set which used to be attributed to him is now known to have been composed by Nicolas Chédeville. On this valuable new recording, Mario Folena and Roberto Loreggian offer what seems to be all that is left of Vivaldi’s output for the genre, informed by the latest scholarship and in delightful and lively period-instrument recordings. They couple it not with the previously recorded ‘Il Pastor Fido’ sonatas, but with a genuine rarity: an arrangement of ‘Spring’ from The Four Seasons made by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the composer and philosopher who argued that, in politics as in music, Man should return to first principles.

Among Vivaldi’s 600 or so concertos, those for keyboard – organ or harpsichord are surprisingly small in number for this most prolific of baroque composers. Of these works, nine in all, there are also several rather tantalising fragments and odd movements, and all betray in the keyboard writing, the composer’s genius as a violinist. The right hand plays violinistic figurations, whilst the left more often than not plays a simple bass line. Interestingly, many of these concertos are arrangements by Vivaldi of concertos for other forces with the exception of RV541 and 542 - both composed as violin and organ concertos. The 2nd movement of RV541 is especially effective with the organ accompanying the violin with a discreet bass line and three-note chords on the right hand. Vivaldi calls for an improvised cadenza in the finale.

Recording made in 2007.

Lesser known Vivaldi.