Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in E major, RV271 'L'Amoroso'

This is the 46th title in the Vivaldi Edition and the 4th volume, out of approximately 12, of the series dedicated to the violin concertos whose manuscripts are held in the National Library of Turin. All the concertos selected here were composed for, dedicated to or performed in front of Charles VI (1685-1740), sovereign of the Habsburg Empire, renowned as patron and passionate lover of music. This series of 7 concertos is an overview of the complete art of Vivaldi as a composer and violinist: large-scale music, invention, expression, energy, power of evocation, played with considerable virtuosity.

Riccardo Minasi, 33, is one of the leading Italian baroque violinists and also has a career as a conductor Il Pomo d'Oro is a new baroque orchestra that gathers excellent musicians from several high-level baroque orchestras including Il Complesso Barocco.

Andrew Manze, leading The English Concert in their second recording together, demonstrates the electrifying, spontaneous style of playing which has made him one of the hottest properties on the classical music scene. This programme brings together for the first time a reconstruction of six violin concertos from the manuscript which Vivaldi presented to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI in 1728. A royal treat indeed!

Our familiarity with Vivaldi’s music makes it a particular challenge to any soloist not only to measure up to the virtuosity of past performers, but also to bring to the performance something new. In the case of Elizabeth Blumenstock and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, that “something new” is actually something very old and precious in its authenticity and faithfulness—a performance that would, without doubt, have pleased the Red Priest mightily.

RV271, L’amoroso and RV277, Il favorito were part of a set of six concertos Vivaldi gave to Emperor Charles VI, who rewarded him with lots of money, a knighthood, a gold medal and an invitation to come visit him in Vienna. And yet one cannot help feeling that these pieces weren’t actually written for the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. The innocent tenderness and joy of L’amoroso and Il favorito, their distinctly feminine lyric sadness and longing, would point to the pieces first having been written for the girls and women of the Pietà.

The rarely recorded concerto in B-flat major (RV375) is from Vivaldi’s late period. Complex and nuanced, the piece is filled with emotions that seem to belong more exclusively to the composer. While RV375 is recognisably the work of the same exuberant man who composed “The Four Seasons,” there is a morbid sense of foreboding in the music, especially in the first movement, and a tone of defiance throughout.

Baroque violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock is widely admired as a performer of compelling verve and eloquence. She has played with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra since 1981 as a regular soloist, concertmaster, and leader. She is also a regular concertmaster with American Bach Soloists, the Göttingen Händelfestspiel Orchestra and the Italian ensemble Il Complesso Barocco. She plays a 1660 Andrea Guarneri violin on loan from the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra Period Instrument Trust.

The playing of Adrian Chandler and his crack period-instrument band La Serenissima emulates the title of their eighth release for Avie, mining the treasures of Vivaldi’s vast output.

Who are these Gods, Emperors and Angels in the title of the latest virtuoso vehicle for Adrian Chandler and his dazzling period-instrument band La Serenissima? Vivaldi was connected to many Highnesses on the European continent, foremost among them the widely cultured Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV to whom Vivaldi dedicated his set of concertos titled La Cetra, meaning “The Lyre,” hence likening the emperor to the lyre playing god Apollo. The theme continues with the oddly titled Concerto Conca or “Conch Concerto,” alluding to the use of the conch shell as a musical trumpet, heard in the work’s first movement, and as used by Triton, son of Neptune and Amphitrite, and by Neptune’s attendants. The Angels are undoubtedly Vivaldi’s virtuoso female students at the Ospedale della Pietà, one of which was described in a contemporary anonymous poem: “She plays the violin in such a way / that anyone hearing her is transported to Paradise / if indeed it is true that up there / the angels play like that.”

Chandler and his forces, delivering their eighth imaginative album for Avie, play like gods, emperors and angels indeed, further securing their exalted place in the realms of early music performance.