4 March 2021 Music on Thursdays Online: Vivaldi

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Thursday 4th March 2021

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi born 4th March 1678

A Vivaldi Birthday Concert Selection

Performers:

Angelo Silvio Rosati, organ
Giuliano Carmignola • Venice Baroque Orchestra
L'Orfeo Ensemble di Spoleto • Fabrizio Ammetto, conductor & violin
Ensemble Matheu • director Jean-Christophe Spinosi • Philippe Jaroussky, countertenor
Modo Antiquo baroque orchestra • Federico Maria Sardelli, conductor • Loriana Castellano, mezzo
Budapesti Madrigálkórus / Budapest Madrigal Choir • Ferenc Szakeres • Maria Zempleni, soprano • Klara Takacs, contralto
Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini, conductor
Strings of Birds • Thomas Indermühle & Marc Bonastre, oboes
L'Arte dell'Arco • Federico Guglielmo, conductor • Federico Guglielmo, solo violin • Carlo Lazari, violin I
Rossella Croce, violin II • Mario Paladin, viola • Pietro Bosna, violoncello • Massimiliano Mauthe von Degerfeld, violone
Federico Marincola, theorbo • Nicola Reniero (harpsichord)
Amsterdam Sinfonietta • Candida Thompson, artistic director & solo violin ♦ Ingrid van Dingstee, direction & violin

Available: Thursday 4th March

Side panel: 1725, by François Morellon de la Cave (c1700-1755), credits: Hermitage Images/Getty Images

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Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (1678-1741)

A 343rd Anniversary Selection

Programme

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4th March 1678 - 1741)

Due pezzi per organo RV 746    Two pieces for organ in A major
arranged from Manchester Sonata for Violin No 6 in A major RV 758
    Largo
    Andante

organist: Angelo Silvio Rosati

Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione Op8 (1723)
The Contest between Harmony and Invention
No 10 Concerto for violin & strings in Bb major RV 362
La caccia    The hunt

No 5 Concerto for violin & strings in Eb Major RV 253
La tempesta di mare    The sea tempest

Giuliano Carmignola, with the Venice Baroque Orchestra

Giustino RV 717(opera, also known as Anastasio, 1724)
Sinfonia for strings and basso continuo in C major RV 111
    I   (Allegro) cadenza: A. Vivaldi - F. Ammetto (from incomplete RV 775)
    II Without tempo indication
    III Allegro

L'Orfeo Ensemble di Spoleto
Fabrizio Ammetto, conductor & violin

Vedrò con mio diletto I'll see to my delight RV 717

Philippe Jaroussky, countertenor
Ensemble Matheu, director Jean-Christophe Spinosi

Nella foresta - In the forest
aria from the opera Catone in Utica, Act 3, Scene 9, RV 705

Loriana Castellano, mezzo
Modo Antiquo baroque orchestra • Federico Maria Sardelli, conductor

Beatus vir (Psalm 111, now Ps 112, Blessed is the man) RV 598 (1713-1719)

Maria Zempleni, soprano • Klara Takacs, contralto
Budapesti Madrigálkórus / Budapest Madrigal Choir, Ferenc Szakeres

Et in terra pax hominibus And on earth peace to all people
from Gloria RV 589 (1716?)

Et in terra pax hominibus And on earth peace to all people
from Gloria RV 588 (pre 1716)

Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini, conductor

Concerto for 2 oboes and strings in D minor RV535 (1724?)
    1 Largo
    2 Allegro
    3 Largo
    4 Allegro molto

Strings of Birds, Thomas Indermühle & Marc Bonastre, oboes

Concert duration: 55-60 minutes

VIVALDI EXTRAS

Concerto con violini d'accordatura diversa, for retuned violin, strings and basso continuo in A major RV 343
    1 Allegro
    2 (Largo)
    3 Allegro

L'Arte dell'Arco • Federico Guglielmo, conductor
Federico Guglielmo, solo violin • Carlo Lazari, violin I • Rossella Croce, violin II
Mario Paladin, viola • Pietro Bosna, violoncello • Massimiliano Mauthe von Degerfeld, violone
Federico Marincola, theorbo • Nicola Reniero (harpsichord)

Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione Op8 (1723)
The Contest between Harmony and Invention
Concerto No. 1 in E major, Op. 8, RV 269, Spring La primavera
    1 Allegro (in E)
    2 Largo e pianissimo sempre (in C♯m)
    3 Allegro pastorale (in E)

Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 8, RV 315, Summer L'estate
    1 Allegro non molto (in Gm)
    2 Adagio e piano – Presto e forte (in Gm)
    3 Presto (in Gm)

Concerto No. 3 in F major, Op. 8, RV 293, Autumn L'autunno
    1 Allegro (in F)
    2 Adagio molto (in Dm)
    3 Allegro (in F)

Concerto No. 4 in F minor, Op. 8, RV 297, Winter L'inverno
    1 Allegro non molto (in Fm)
    2 Largo (in E♭)
3 Allegro (in Fm)

ENCORE: Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla (1921-1992)
from Cuatro Estaciones Porteña - Four Seasons of Buenos Aires
    3 Primavera Porteña (1960)

Amsterdam Sinfonietta • Candida Thompson, artistic director & solo violin    ♦    Ingrid van Dingstee, direction & violin

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recorded 'as live' by professional musicians

Please Donate Through CAF

♫ ───────────────────────────────────

Who was Antonio Vivaldi ?

Italian Baroque composer, virtuoso violinist, teacher, impresario, Roman Catholic priest. Born in Venice, Vivaldi is regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers. During his lifetime his influence was widespread across Europe, paramount in the development of JS Bach's instrumental music. He composed many concertos, for the violin and a variety of other musical instruments, as well as sacred choral works and more than forty operas. His best-known work is the series of violin concertos known as the Four Seasons.

Many of his compositions were written for the all-female music ensemble of the Ospedale della Pietà, a home for abandoned children. Vivaldi had worked there as a Catholic priest for 18 months and was employed there from 1703 to 1715 and from 1723 to 1740. He also had some success with expensive stagings of his operas in Venice, Mantua and Vienna. After meeting the Emperor Charles VI, Vivaldi moved to Vienna, hoping for royal support. However, the Emperor died soon after Vivaldi's arrival, and Vivaldi himself died in poverty less than a year later.

You will find a more substantial biography on this wikipedia link.

Surely, we all know Vivaldi! There's his Gloria, his Four Seasons... yes, keep going... plenty of violin sonatas and concertos, in fact, lots of strings.

I shall open this Vivaldi Birthday Selection with a palate-cleansing, intimate, organ work.

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We almost leave the strings aside for a moment.

Why 'almost' ? Well, the two little pieces for organ known as RV 746 turn out to be based on Vivaldi's Manchester Sonata for Strings No 6 in A major RV 758.

First, this is Nicholas Anderson explaining the 'Manchester Sonatas' in an article for The Gramophone:

Vivaldi scholar, Michael Talbot by chance discovered these 12 violin sonatas in Manchester's Central Music Library. It was an important find not just because the music is by Vivaldi but because it is, for the most part, excellent music. It seems likely that the composer presented the sonatas for violin and continuo to the great Roman patron of the arts, Cardinal Ottoboni during the 1720s. When Ottoboni died in 1740 he was so much in debt that his library of music had to be sold. Some of it, including this collection, was bought by an English traveller, Edward Holdsworth who passed it on to Charles Jennens, librettist of Messiah and other Handel oratorios. Thence, via Heneage Finch, Third Earl of Aylesford and the Handel scholar, Newman Flower, they were eventually bought at auction by Manchester's Central Music Library in the mid-1960s.

Here are two little pieces for organ, a Largo and an Andante

Due pezzi per organo RV 746 5m10
Two pieces for organ in A major
arranged from Manchester Sonata for Violin No 6
in A major RV758

Largo
Andante

organist: Angelo Silvio Rosati

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All right string lovers, the teasing is over. I should warn you, though, that you are not going to have it all your own way in this selection.

You see, several of Vivaldi's string works also appear in versions he wrote for oboe or for flute. We shall listen to one of those later.

First, we shall consider his wonderfully titled Opus 8, Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione - The Contest between Harmony and Invention.

Take it easy. Some are already guessing where this is going and they are going to feel teased again.

That is because the first four of these twelve violin concertos do indeed form the famous Le quattro stagione. But you know them so well !

At the end of today's selection, I will offer a performance of the Four Seasons.

For now I want to bring you two of the other concertos in this set. Their titles are equally descriptive, and Vivaldi's music does not deceive.

I am sure you will enjoy the many familiar features in the concertos: La caccia, and La tempesta di mare.

Concerto for violin & strings in Bb major RV 362
La caccia The hunt 8m20
from Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione Op8 No10 (1723)
The Contest between Harmony and Invention

Giuliano Carmignola, with the Venice Baroque Orchestra

Concerto for violin & strings in Eb major RV 253
La tempesta di mare The sea tempest 8m45
from Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione Op 8 No 5

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Vivaldi is also known for some 50 operas, premiered from 1713 to 1739.

The opera Giustino, or Anastasio, was written for the 1724 carnival season in Rome, and was premiered at the Teatro Capranica.

The libretto was written by Count Nicolò Beregan, and re-worked by Pietro Pariati in 1711.

Its first setting was by Legrenzi 1683. Albinoni and Vivaldi set the Pariati reworked libretto, and later, in 1737, Handel would use the same Beregan/Pariati libretto for his own Giustino.

Here are two popular works from opera, first the Concerto, followed by Anastasio's beautiful aria Vedrò con mio diletto :

Sinfonia for strings and basso continuo in C major RV 111
from the opera Giustino 6m30

I (Allegro) cadenza: A. Vivaldi - F. Ammetto (from incomplete RV 775)
II Without tempo indication
III Allegro

L'Orfeo Ensemble di Spoleto
Fabrizio Ammetto, conductor & violin

Vedrò con mio diletto RV 717 (1724) 5m20
from the opera Giustino (also known as Anastasio)

Philippe Jaroussky, countertenor
Ensemble Matheu, director Jean-Christophe Spinosi

Italian Text & English Translation: Vedrò con mio diletto

text & translation from: lyricstranslate.com

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We now move to the other end of Vivaldi's opera output. Catone in Utica, or Cato in Utica, is an Italian libretto by Pietro Metastasio. Between 1727 and 1791 Metastasio's libretto was used for operas by 20 different composers, including Giacomelli, Handel (1732 in London) and Johann Christian "the London" Bach (Milan in 1758, London probably in 1764).

The story: It is 46 BC. The Roman empire has crumbled to the point where only a small conclave exists on the coast of North Africa, at Utica, led by Cato the Younger. Caesar approaches, Cato's forces engage, and Caesar is triumphant, having his men slaughter any survivor. On hearing of the losses Cato commits suicide.

Metastasio surrounds this story from Plutarch with plenty of love and intrigue. This, after all, is opera! So we come to Emilia (Pompeo's widow) who sings this aria, Nella foresta, In the forest:

Nella foresta - In the forest 6m40
aria from the opera Catone in Utica, Act 3, Scene 9, RV 705

Loriana Castellano, mezzo
Modo Antiquo baroque orchestra
Federico Maria Sardelli, conductor
Festival Opera Barga 2019

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We next come to a short look at Vivaldi's sacred works. Of his three settings of Beatus vir, the opening of Psalm 112 (and also of Psalm 1) RV 599 is lost, RV 597 is fairly well known, and so I have chosen to air the beautiful, though less frequently heard, RV 598.

Here Vivaldi was in good company. 17th and 18th century Italian composers set Psalm 112 at least 81 times.

You may be wondering why the setting is marked as both Psalm 112 and 111. The 150 poems of the Psalms were not presented with their numbers. Those were added later, and there were two systems.

While the Hebrew system was adopted by the non-conformist bibles of Luther and Coverdale, the Catholic Church adopted the Greek version and later moved to the Hebrew roots, but they felt unable to re-number such popular poems as the Psalms. You can read a great deal more here, although for me, it hardly clarified matters!

Beatus vir 8m10
(Psalm 111, now Ps 112, Blessed is the man)
RV 598 (1713-1719)

Maria Zempleni, soprano • Klara Takacs, contralto
Budapesti Madrigálkórus
Budapest Madrigal Choir, Ferenc Szakeres

Singers talk of 'The Vivaldi Gloria' as if it were a single thing. In fact there were three Glorias. Here comes a familiar story! So, RV 590 - is lost. RV 589 is the one most often sung, while RV 588 is less frequently heard. As we know RV 589 I thought you might like to compare the settings of just one section of the Gloria.

So I have chosen the second part, Et in terra pax hominibus, And on earth peace to all people. (Definitely not as some choirboys claim: And in terror people went home on the bus.)

We shall hear the familiar RV 589 first, although here I have chosen an unusual rendition. It is unusual for its speed. This requires a different string technique too as there is no time to linger. After that comes the less familiar RV 588. Distinctly Vivaldi, everything is there, so why is this earlier version less popular? Earlier, and less interesting, some say. I leave you to decide for yourself.

Et in terra pax hominibus 4m05
And on earth peace to all people
from Gloria RV 589 (1716?)

Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini, conductor

Et in terra pax hominibus 5m30 -56m30
And on earth peace to all people
from Gloria RV 588

Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini, conductor

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I have made the oboe lovers wait right to the end of today's selection, so I will reward their patience by choosing a double oboe concerto. This is the Concerto for 2 oboes and strings in in D minor RV 535. Although it is only 9 minutes in length, the concerto consists of 4 movements.

Concerto for 2 oboes and strings in D minor RV 535 (1724?)
1 Largo
2 Allegro
3 Largo
4 Allegro molto

Strings of Birds
Thomas Indermühle & Marc Bonastre, oboes
in the Neumünster, Evangelical Reform Church, Zürich, Switzerland

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Vivaldi Extras:

I have been referring to Vivaldi's works by a numbering system he did not use. Like most of these cataloguing numbers they were applied much later. We have had a selection of 10 works in this concert. It is the merest dipping of the toe into the works of Vivaldi.

Not only have we the remainder of each of the Glorias and operas to explore, but these RV numbers go as far as 826. Granted some numbers are showing as 'Lost' - but there are still nearly 800 other works for you to explore.

If, as Thomas Ang did last week, you spot a work that has never been recorded, you now know what to do. Be the first to record it. Leatherhead is renowned for its firsts. Please let us know when it is ready for our audience.

Even though our concert selection is complete for today I feel we have two unresolved matters remaining. In all these numbers, given that today would be Antonio Vivaldi's 343rd birthday, it might be fun to listen to the work that is numbered RV 343.

It is the Concerto con violini d'accordatura diversa, for violin, strings and basso continuo in A major RV 343. The strings of the solo violin and violins 1 & 2 are changed by that mention of "accordatura diversa", often called "scordatura". This means, differently tuned, not tuned as normal. In this case the tuning is: A2-E2-A3-E4. I wonder how that would be written out. Apparently, the music is written as if to tell the fingers what to do, but the note heard will be different from the one the player sees on the page.

How to get one's head around that? String players never cease to amaze me!

So here is the option to listen to this Concerto for differently tuned violins, strings, and figured bass, in A major, RV 343. The work is dedicated to Anna Maria della Pietà, herself a violinist, teacher and composer at the Ospedale della Pieta, a home for abandoned children in Venice. Vivaldi also worked at the Pietá, initially as a priest for 18 months, and later he was employed there between 1703 and 1715, and again between 1723 and 1740.

Concerto con violini d'accordatura diversa, for retuned violin, strings and basso continuo in A major RV 343
1 Allegro
2 (Largo)
3 Allegro

L'Arte dell'Arco • Federico Guglielmo, conductor
Federico Guglielmo, solo violin • Carlo Lazari, violin I • Rossella Croce, violin II
Mario Paladin, viola • Pietro Bosna, violoncello • Massimiliano Mauthe von Degerfeld, violone
Federico Marincola, theorbo • Nicola Reniero (harpsichord)

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And finally, for those who wish to listen to yet more Vivaldi, here come RV numbers 269, 315, 293 and 297 - or as we are used to calling them, Le quattro stagione, The Four Seasons, written 1716-1717, published in Amsterdam in 1725.

Of the many recordings of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, I have chosen this one by the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, with their artistic director Candida Thompson as soloist. It was recorded on August 25th 2020 in front of a socially distanced audience in the Concertgebouw.

They offer us an encore of Piazzolla's Spring, from his Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. Appropriately, of the four, this is the movement with the greatest counterpoint.

Concerto No. 1 in E major, Op. 8, RV 269, Spring La primavera
1 Allegro (in E)
2 Largo e pianissimo sempre (in C♯m)
3 Allegro pastorale (in E)

Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 8, RV 315, Summer L'estate
1 Allegro non molto (in Gm)
2 Adagio e piano – Presto e forte (in Gm)
3 Presto (in Gm)

Concerto No. 3 in F major, Op. 8, RV 293, Autumn L'autunno
1 Allegro (in F)
2 Adagio molto (in Dm)
3 Allegro (in F)

Concerto No. 4 in F minor, Op. 8, RV 297, Winter L'inverno
1 Allegro non molto (in Fm)
2 Largo (in E♭)
3 Allegro (in Fm)

ENCORE: Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla (1921-1992)
from Cuatro Estaciones Porteña - Four Seasons of Buenos Aires
3 Primavera Porteña (1960)

Amsterdam Sinfonietta
Candida Thompson, artistic director & solo violin ♦ Ingrid van Dingstee, direction & violin
with a socially distanced audience in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam

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We hope you have enjoyed our 343rd Anniversary Concert,
with selections made by Peter Steadman for Music on Thursdays

Watch your email and this website
for news of next Thursday's Saint-Säens selection concert

25 Feb AS LIVE: Thomas Ang, piano

11 March: Saint-Säens

We continue with weekly video selection concerts until the end of June, with hopes of going live at Leatherhead Methodist Church from July 1st.

The first Thursdays in April, May and June will be further special recordings for Music on Thursdays. Watch out for news of the artistes who have accepted our lockdown challenge.

comments welcome: musiconthursdays@gmail.com

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These concert recordings remain online

click on the buttons below to Listen (and watch) Again

and please tell your friends about them too !

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Thomas Ang
Bülow ♦ Liszt ♦ Amy Beach
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

harmonica

Oct 29th
Phil Hopkins
chromatic harmonica
Stuart Whatton
piano

CarmenCo

Oct 22nd

Carmenco

flute, voice & 2 guitars

Marion Bettsworth

Oct 15th

organist

Marion Bettsworth

Diphonon Duo

Oct 8th

Diphonon viola & accordion Duo

Eddie Lee

Oct 1st

pianist Eddie Lee's

Jazz on Thursday

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