Vivaldi, Veneto, Europe

The concerts contained in this particular and precious program take us back to the activity that Vivaldi carried out at the Hospital of Santa Maria della Visitazione or della Pietà, one of the four Venetian institutions reserved for girls (orphans and illegitimate daughters). The musical activity carried out by the so-called 'putte' was famous right at the Pietà: guided and instructed not only by the maestro but also by the most expert among them, they sang and played hidden behind a grate that prevented them from being seen by the public. Among the listeners who flocked on Sundays and other holidays to listen to their concerts, there were the many private citizens who would then subsidize this and other similar institutions with bequests and donations. The relationship that Vivaldi had with the Pietà began in 1703 and would last for almost the rest of his life, albeit with several interruptions and above all with many changes regarding the nature of the relationship itself, having to distinguish between the service provided as effective teacher and director and the one as a supplier of compositions to be performed, always at the Pietà, occasionally also under his own direction. The position as violin teacher, accepted in 1703 for an annual salary of sixty ducats, was followed by that of "concert master" which arrived in 1716, a function probably retained only until 1723 even if a similar role was still reserved for him subsequently, between 1735 and 1738. Vivaldi's skill with the violin - his contemporaries were decidedly more ready to appreciate his qualities as a performer rather than as a composer - is demonstrated both by the development of the technical possibilities found in his music and by the absolute preponderance of solo concerts dedicated to this instrument. But those who inspired these compositions, as well as those intended for other instruments, were also the most skilled of the 'putte' who frequented the "Pio Ospitale" of the Pietà. We know the nickname or first name of some of them: Chiara, Chiaretta, Teresa and Anna Maria, the latter probably the most famous of all. Thus a possible explanation is found in the annotation "Per [la] Signora Chiara", which can be read in a manuscript copy of the Concerto for violin, strings and continuous bass RV 222 found in Venice, an annotation which however is missing from the autograph score today preserved in the Giordano Fund.

This evening's program includes that extraordinary series of violin concertos by Vivaldi conceived as medallions of affections, of moments and situations dictated by the passage of time of the year, of specific effects of nature and specifically of the group dating back to around 1720 which includes also «The suspicion» RV 199 and «The rest» RV 270.

“La extravaganza” is the title of a collection of twelve concerts composed between 1712 and 1713, published for the first time in 1716 by Estienne Roger in Amsterdam, as opus 4, and dedicated to a Venetian nobleman, Vettor Delfino. In the original header, the dedication contains the following text:

Twenty symphonies are attributed to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, second son of Johann Sebastian, baptized by Telemann, whose successor he would later be (1767) in Hamburg. At no. 182 of this catalog include the Six Symphonies composed in 1773 for Baron Gottfried van Swieten. Son of a famous doctor Gerard (1700 - 1772) who among the roles he held also had that of chief physician to Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, Baron van Swieten had soon abandoned medical sciences to pursue a diplomatic career. An excellent music amateur, when he took up permanent residence in Vienna (1777), abandoning his diplomatic career, he became the main architect of the musical life of the imperial capital: he promoted the establishment of a "Knights' Society" for the valorisation of ancient music, he committed himself in spreading the music of Handel (it was van Swieten who commissioned Mozart to "revise" four Handel masterpieces, including the Messiah) and Bach, he induced Haydn to compose the two great oratorios Die Schöpfung and Die Jahreszeiten (they are his the librettos) and protected the young Beethoven (who dedicated the First Symphony to him).

Passages for solo cello are almost as old as the concerto genre itself, but in the early concertos these short solo flights are decorative rather than structurally significant, and the concerto properly “for” cello had to wait to emerge until Vivaldi wrote the first known examples . at the beginning of the 18th century. Although the composer's principal instrument was the violin, for which he must have written his first solo concertos, the earliest datable concertos to survive from his pen are, strangely, those for cello purchased in manuscript from a visiting German musician, Franz Homeck , in the winter of 1708-1709. Most likely, these were written for the musicians of the Ospedale della Pietà, the Venetian foundling institution that Vivaldi intermittently served as violin teacher or director of instrumental music from 1703 until his death in 1741. Vivaldi wrote other cello concertos for Pietà in the period 1723-1729, when he kept it supplied with a special agreement of two concerts a month, and again between 1735 and 1738, when he once again held the title of concert master. We know the names of five cellists active at the Pietà in the 1730s: Claudia, Santina, Teresa, Tonina and Veneranda.

“IL CAMENTO DELL’ARMONIA E DELL’INVENTIONE” (Opera 8) contains twelve concerts for violin and strings, composed by Antonio Vivaldi between 1723 and 1725.

An ideal musical journey between Germany and Italy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with a concert entitled Between Venice and Dresden with music by Antonio Vivaldi, Johann Georg Pisendel, Tomaso Albinoni and Wilhelm Friedmann Bach. The evening's program, particularly fascinating, will reinterpret in music the important cultural connections that have always linked the two cities of Dresden and Venice: since the 16th century, the era of glory of the Serenissima, German composers and intellectuals had Venice as their destination, to learn the musical style and propose it again at court in Germany. The music of Venice circulated throughout Europe, being the protagonist of prints and publications in Amsterdam and London even when Venetian publishing had already given way to the great European capitals. In 1716 the young violinist Johann Georg Pisendel went to Venice to learn the latest musical trends, with which he aimed to consolidate his already prestigious position as concertmaster of the Dresden Hofkapelle. During his long stay in the Serenissima he had the opportunity to meet many of the most eminent composers of the time, first of all Antonio Vivaldi. A sincere respect was born between the two, demonstrated by the works that the Red Priest dedicated to his younger German colleague. After his return to his homeland, Pisendel kept in touch with Vivaldi, asking him to write a series of concertos for what was considered the best orchestra in Europe. Around 1718, Pisendel decided to also dedicate himself to composition, a choice that pushed him to perfect himself with what was considered the most brilliant author of the Dresden musical chapel, namely Johan David Heinichen.

Before arriving in Venice, Charles Burney stopped in Padua, eager to see the Church of Sant'Antonio where one of the greatest violinists of the time, Giuseppe Tartini, had worked: "In recent years the stay of the famous composer and violist has made this city no less famous than in antiquity for being the birthplace of the great historian Tito Livio. Tartini had died a few months before my arrival here, and I considered this event a particular misfortune for me and a loss for the entire musical world. He was a great master and I would have liked to hear him play as well as be able to converse with him. I visited the street and the house where he had lived, the church and the tomb where he was buried; executor, everything, even insignificant and banal, that could enlighten me about his life and character I was interested in everything with the zeal of a pilgrim to Mecca" (C. Burney, Musical Journey to Italy, 30 July-2 August. 1770).

Victim of prejudices, of misleading historical interpretations, of picturesque exotic locations, Antonio Vivaldi's lute music remains to this day almost a mysterious object within the production of the Red Priest. On the contrary, it deserves attention for the quality it expresses and for including at least one masterpiece in its field, the double concerto for viola d'amore and lute RV 540. The circumstances that pushed Vivaldi to deal with the lute, as far as we know, are to be search particularly in the extraordinary timbral palette that the composer had at his disposal at the Pietà and in a probable specific request that was addressed to him by the Bohemian count Johann Joseph von Wrtby. The lute, a term which in eighteenth-century Italy indicates the archlute or the aorbato lute, was also used by Vivaldi as an instrument for the basso continuo - see the second movement of the Concerto for the solemnity of S. Lorenzo RV 556 - or , in the case of the theorbo, for particular timbral effects, as in the Juditha Triumphans oratorio. Note that the instrument in Italy was not in a phase of unstoppable decline, as is often said and written: it can be found indicated as obligato in the scores of operas or oratorios by composers such as Alessandro Scarlatti, Pergolesi, Feo. In German-speaking countries the lute was even experiencing a phase of great expansion and fortune, Hãndel, Hasse, Bach, Heinichen, Fasch were interested in it in depth, while one of the greatest virtuosos of the century from those lands was a lutenist, Sylvius Leopold Weiss.

Passages for solo cello are almost as old as the concerto genre itself, but in the early concertos these short solo flights are decorative rather than structurally significant, and the concerto properly “for” cello had to wait to emerge until Vivaldi wrote the first known examples . at the beginning of the 18th century. Although the composer's principal instrument was the violin, for which he must have written his first solo concertos, the earliest datable concertos to survive from his pen are, strangely, those for cello purchased in manuscript from a visiting German musician, Franz Homeck , in the winter of 1708-1709. Most likely, these were written for the musicians of the Ospedale della Pietà, the Venetian foundling institution that Vivaldi intermittently served as violin teacher or director of instrumental music from 1703 until his death in 1741. Vivaldi wrote other cello concertos for Pietà in the period 1723-1729, when he kept it supplied with a special agreement of two concerts a month, and again between 1735 and 1738, when he once again held the title of concert master. We know the names of five cellists active at the Pietà in the 1730s: Claudia, Santina, Teresa, Tonina and Veneranda.

Opera 7 is a series of twelve concerts, of which ten for violin, strings and continuous bass and two (no. 1 and no. 7) for oboe, strings and continuous bass, composed between 1716 and 1717.

“IL CAMENTO DELL’ARMONIA E DELL’INVENTIONE” (Opera 8) contains twelve concerts for violin and strings, composed by Antonio Vivaldi between 1723 and 1725.

Opera 7 is a series of twelve concerts, of which ten for violin, strings and continuous bass and two (no. 1 and no. 7) for oboe, strings and continuous bass, composed between 1716 and 1717.

Opera 7 is a series of twelve concerts, of which ten for violin, strings and continuous bass and two (no. 1 and no. 7) for oboe, strings and continuous bass, composed between 1716 and 1717.

The program embodies the desire to be able to explore the expressive potential of the oboe in early eighteenth-century Italy, a period in which composers such as Telemann, Vivaldi, Bach, Handel and Scarlatti were conquering the world of music.

Opera 7 is a series of twelve concerts, of which ten for violin, strings and continuous bass and two (no. 1 and no. 7) for oboe, strings and continuous bass, composed between 1716 and 1717.

Despite the sarcastic joke, the Red Priest was also part of that "family heritage" to be safeguarded and confronted with. On the other hand "Bach and Vivaldi sensitively spoke the same language, and their disciples repeated it after them, transforming it without knowing it, each according to their personality" (I. Stravinsky, Musical Poetics).

At the dawn of the 18th century, a new musical aesthetic made its way into the heart of Europe and it was the composers of Venetian origin who became ambassadors of this renewed taste. Having learned the Corellian lesson, they take up and perfect a new idiomatic language designed to make the most of the timbres and technical possibilities of string instruments. These are the years in which the most important schools of Italian violin making flourish and musical aesthetic taste evolves at the same time: the composers who push musical writing towards new frontiers are themselves virtuosos of their instrument and established concert performers. The violin stands out

In wind instruments (Flute, Oboe, Clarinet) the nickname “d'Amore” derives from the fact that they are cut in A, in the case of the Oboe, a minor third lower.

The Quintet for clarinet and string quartet K. 581 was finished composing on 29 September 1789 in Vienna, in a period of serious economic difficulties for Mozart, despite the fact that the previous year he had written the three great symphonies K. 543, K. 550 and K. 551 (Jupiter) and two years earlier had achieved significant success in Prague with the playful drama Don Giovanni. It is not for nothing that in 1789 and on several occasions the musician addressed several letters with urgent requests for money to the rich merchant and his friend Michele Puchberg, who on various occasions helped the unhappy artist. They are letters that denounce the state of extreme poverty in which the musician found himself and which Puchberg, as a good merchant, carefully preserved and handed down to posterity, noting in the margin, from time to time, the sum given. Here is one of these letters sent by the composer in early July 1789 to his kind benefactor and revealing a psychological condition bordering on despair. «I am in conditions that I would not wish on my worst enemy - writes Mozart - and if you, an excellent friend and brother, abandon me, I will unfortunately, and without any fault on my part, be lost with my poor sick wife and children. The last time I was with you I was on the verge of opening my heart to you... but my heart failed me. And I would still miss it if you were not informed of my condition and perfectly convinced of the absolute lack of guilt on my part in this very sad state of affairs. Oh God! Instead of thanking you, I make new requests. If you know my heart deeply, you will feel all the pain this causes me. Unfortunately, fate is so adverse to me - but only here in Vienna - that it does not allow me to earn anything, with all my best will. At least if that illness hadn't come (the musician refers to his wife Costanza's hospitalization for an infection in her foot), I wouldn't now be forced to show myself so bold towards my only friend. Forgive me, for the love of God, just forgive me."

Before arriving in Venice, Charles Burney stopped in Padua, eager to see the Church of Sant'Antonio where one of the greatest violinists of the time, Giuseppe Tartini, had worked: "In recent years the stay of the famous composer and violist has made this city no less famous than in antiquity for being the birthplace of the great historian Tito Livio. Tartini had died a few months before my arrival here, and I considered this event a particular misfortune for me and a loss for the entire musical world. He was a great master and I would have liked to hear him play as well as be able to converse with him. I visited the street and the house where he had lived, the church and the tomb where he was buried; executor, everything, even insignificant and banal, that could enlighten me about his life and character I was interested in everything with the zeal of a pilgrim to Mecca" (C. Burney, Musical Journey to Italy, 30 July-2 August. 1770).

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi, ordained priest in 1703 and called the "Red Priest" for the color of his hair, after his consecration accepted the role of "violin teacher" at the prestigious 'Ospedale della Pietà' in Venice, where he taught, again unknown, to the girls, called "the putte", hosted at the Pietà and for whom he dedicated himself to the composition of vocal and instrumental concerts intended for them. Music was initially one of the many subjects taught, but it soon became predominant, making hospitals become specialized structures, enormous hotbeds of talent. Vivaldi wrote a lot of music of a high virtuosic level in these years, it was for his "putte" who worked full time, performing very frequent concerts and practicing daily, reaching ever higher performance levels. His music was expressly written for the "putte" and very often Vivaldi initialed at the beginning of the score the name of the girl who was supposed to play or sing his composition, it can therefore be hypothesized that when the Red Priest wrote he already had the quality of the performer and the result of the execution being able to push the virtuosic level ever higher.

Most representative figure of the so-called Empfindsamer Stil ("Sensitive Style") which, especially in northern Germany, influenced and characterized the musical production of a good part of the 18th century. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was the most famous and prolific of Johann Sebastian's sons, whose fame at the time - considering the musical roles he held - surpassed. Therefore, if today when speaking of Bach it is natural to think first of all of the Kantor of Leipzig, in the second half of the 18th century it is likely that, at least in Germany, Philipp Emanuel was the musician to whom implicit reference was made.

In the 18th century, the last in the history of Venice as a sovereign state, princes and noble travelers from all over Europe came there to meet artists and purchase their works or even to attract them to their service, "souvenir vivant" of an unforgettable stay.

The concert "Alla Rustica" at the opening of the program, for which GF Malipiero took care of the bass, is, in its brevity, one of Vivaldi's most singular and interesting works.