Search - Interpreti Veneziani :: Vivaldi: Concerti, Op. 8

The son of Giovanni Battista, Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice in 1678 and died in Vienna in 1742. He appears to have studied in his native city with the distinguished musician Giovanni Legrenzi. In 1703 he was ordained as a priest, although this seems have been more for social convenience than for vocation, since a somewhat inappropriate attitude towards the church was demonstrated by his request to be excused from attending mass, citing questionable health reasons. In this same year he became a tutor of violin at the 'Ospedale della Pieta', one of the four Venetian conservatories where orphaned or impoverished girls were both cared for and trained in music. Only a modest amount of this work was actually published (mostly in Amsterdam) during his lifetime. This 3 included nine collections of concertos, and in particular 'Estro Armonico' (op.3), 'Stravaganza' (op.4), 'Cimento dell'- Armonia e dell'Inventione' (op.8) and 'Cetra' (op.9). Vivaldi was undoubtedly a master of both theatrical and instrumental music forms, but is perhaps even better remembered as a pioneer of the 'soloist concerto' a new method of pitting a single, usually somewhat virtuosic, solo performer against a full orchestra. The most notable examples of these works (which focus on their own individual programmatic characteristics) are of course his four 'Seasons', which come from 'Il Cimento dell'Armonia e dell'Inventione' (op.8, dating from around 1725). In this op.8 set of concertos, Vivaldi breaks down all formal boundaries and reaches a new expressive freedom, achieved through a combination of bizarre and colorful orchestral descriptiveness, a musical reconstruction of the atmospheres of nature, and an array of imitative effects. As is also true of the remainder of the op.8 Cimento dell'Armonia e dell'Inventione, Vivaldi's creativity here is quite astonishing. This is a highly attractive set by the Interpreti Veneziani!