| Cello Sonatas | |
|---|---|
| Chamber music by Antonio Vivaldi | |
 Advertisment of a set of six printed sonatas, in Mercure de France | |
| Catalogue | RV 38–47 |
| Composed | c. 1720–1730 |
| Movements | 4 in each sonata |
| Scoring |
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Antonio Vivaldi composed several sonatas for cello and continuo. A set of six cello sonatas, written between 1720 and 1730, were published in Paris in 1740. He wrote at least four other cello sonatas, with two manuscripts kept in Naples, another in Wiesentheid, and one known to be lost.
When Vivaldi worked in Venice, the cello sonata became a popular genre. Benedetto Marcello had composed six cello sonatas in a similar style shortly before Vivaldi. Eleanor Selfridge-Field writes: "the impetus for Vivaldi to write these works at such a late age may have come from the general popularity of the cello sonatas of the 1730s, or perhaps from the specific example of Marcello, who wrote two collections of cello sonatas published in that decade". [1]
Vivaldi wrote his at least ten cello sonatas between 1720 and 1730, of which nine are extant. The manuscripts of six of them (RV 40, 41, 43, 45, 46 and 47) are held by the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris. Manuscripts of three sonatas (RV 39, 44 and 47) are kept at the Conservatorio di S. Pietro a Majella in Naples. Three manuscripts of cello sonatas are held by the library of Schloss Wiesentheid , Bavaria): RV 42, 44 and 46. [2]
The six cello sonatas held in Paris were copied around 1725, for a French client, possibly Count Gergy, the French ambassador in Venice who commissioned music by Vivaldi for noble customers in Paris. Three of the sonatas (RV 40, 42 and 43) seem to be pasticcios from earlier compositions, based on their style. [2] They appear to be a collection for a single customer rather than to be printed, by monotony in key and no numbering. [2]
The three sonatas held in Naples were most probably copied for Count Maddaloni, an amateur cellist for whom Pergolesi composed a cello sonata, and Leonardo Leo six cello concertos. These sonatas are part-autographs, with all verbal markings by the composer which assures the authenticity of this compositions. Count Rudolf Franz Erwein von Schönborn Wiesentheid, also an amateur cellist, ordered three Vivaldi cello sonatas. [2]
The Paris sonatas were published in 1740 [2] [3] [4] by Leclerc and Boivin, [5] titled VI Sonates Violoncello Solo col Basso. They appeared without an opus number, but are sometimes improperly called Op. 14. The print obviously happened without the composer's permission; music for cello was in increasing demand in Paris at the time, and Vivaldi's name popular. [2] [3]
The three sonatas RV 39, 44 and 42, were published by Amadeus Verlag in Winterthur in 1975, edited by Walter Kolneder who assumed that it was their first publication. [1]
The sonatas are all in four movements, typical for late Baroque sonatas. The tempos follow a pattern of slow-fast-slow-fast consistently. [3]
The nine extant cello sonatas were recorded in 1993 by David Watkin as the soloist and a continuo group of cellist Helen Gough, David Miller playing theorbo or archlute or guitar), and Robert King on harpsichord or organ. [3]
Benedetto Giacomo Marcello was an Italian composer, writer, advocate, magistrate, and teacher.
The year 1730 in music involved some significant events.
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L'estro armonico, Op. 3, is a set of 12 concertos for stringed instruments by Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi, first published in Amsterdam in 1711. Vivaldi's Twelve Trio Sonatas, Op. 1, and Twelve Violin Sonatas, Op. 2, only contained sonatas, thus L'estro armonico was his first collection of concertos appearing in print. It was also the first time he chose a foreign publisher, Estienne Roger, instead of an Italian. Each concerto was printed in eight parts: four violins, two violas, cello and continuo. The continuo part was printed as a figured bass for violone and harpsichord.
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A set of twelve concertos was published by Estienne Roger in 1716-1717 under Antonio Vivaldi's name, as his Opus 7. They were in two volumes, each containing concertos numbered 1-6. Of the set, ten were for violin solo; the other two were for oboe solo. The authenticity of some of the works included has long been doubted by scholars. Three are now considered spurious for stylistic reasons. They are: No. 1 in B-flat major for oboe, RV Anh. 143 ; No. 7 in B-flat major for oboe, RV Anh. 142 ; and No. 9 in B-flat major for violin, RV Anh. 153.
La stravaganza, Op. 4, is a set of concertos written by Antonio Vivaldi in 1712–1713. The set was first published in 1716 in Amsterdam and was dedicated to Venetian nobleman Vettor Delfino, who had been a violin student of Vivaldi's. All of the concertos are scored for solo violin, strings, and basso continuo; however, some movements require extra soloists.
La cetra, Op. 9, is a set of twelve violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi, published in 1727. All of them are for violin solo, strings, and basso continuo, except No. 9 in B flat, which features two solo violins. The set was named after the cetra, a lyre-like instrument, and was dedicated to Emperor Charles VI.
An organ concerto is a piece of music, an instrumental concerto for a pipe organ soloist with an orchestra. The form first evolves in the 18th century, when composers including Antonio Vivaldi, George Frideric Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach wrote organ concertos with small orchestras, and with solo parts which rarely call for the organ pedal board. During the Classical period the organ concerto became popular in many places, especially in Bavaria, Austria and Bohemia, reaching a position of being almost an integral part of the church music tradition of jubilus character. From the Romantic era fewer works are known. Finally, there are some 20th- and 21st-century examples, of which the concerto by Francis Poulenc has entered the basic repertoire, and is quite frequently played.
Anyone for Mozart, Bach, Handel, Vivaldi? is a CD compilation re-issue of music by the Swingle Singers. It combines tracks from two previous LP releases, Going Baroque and Swinging Mozart.
Antonio Vivaldi wrote a set of concerti, Op. 11, in 1729.
Antonio Vivaldi wrote a set of concerti for violin, strings and continuo, Op. 12, in 1729.
The Concerto for Strings in G major, RV 151, commonly referred to as the Concerto alla rustica, is a concerto for orchestra without soloists by Antonio Vivaldi. It was written between mid-1720 and 1730, and is one of the composer's best-known concertos.
The concerto transcriptions of Johann Sebastian Bach date from his second period at the court in Weimar (1708–1717). Bach transcribed for organ and harpsichord a number of Italian and Italianate concertos, mainly by Antonio Vivaldi, but with others by Alessandro Marcello, Benedetto Marcello, Georg Philipp Telemann and the musically talented Prince Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar. It is thought that most of the transcriptions were probably made in 1713–1714. Their publication by C.F. Peters in the 1850s and by Breitkopf & Härtel in the 1890s played a decisive role in the Vivaldi revival of the twentieth century.
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