Benkocsnesdrahos - Vivaldi - Complete Bassoon Concertos, Vol 1 [CD]

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Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)Complete Bassoon Concertos Volume 1: RV 471, 476, 480, 487,493, 498 & 503Known in his native Venice as the red priest, from theinherited colour of his hair, Antonio Vivaldi was born in 1678, the son of abarber who later served as a violinist at the great Basilica of St Mark.Vivaldi studied for the priesthood and was ordained in 1703. At the same timehe won a reputation for himself as a violinist of phenomenal ability and wasappointed violin-master at the Ospedale della Piet?\xe1. This last was one of foursuch charitable institutions, established for the education of orphan, indigentor illegitimate girls and boasting a particularly fine musical tradition. Herethe girls were trained in music, some of the more talented continuing to servethere as assistant teachers, earning the dowry necessary for marriage.Vivaldi's association with the Piet?\xe1 continued intermittently throughout hislife, from 1723 under a contract that provided for the composition of two newconcertos every month. At the same time he enjoyed a connection with thetheatre, as the composer of some fifty operas, director and manager. He finallyleft Venice in 1741, travelling to Vienna, where there seemed some possibilityof furthering his career under imperial patronage, or perhaps with the idea oftravelling on to the court at Dresden, where his pupil Pisendel was working. Hedied in Vienna a few weeks after his arrival in the city, in relative poverty.At one time he had been worth 50,000 ducats a year, it seemed, but now hadlittle to show for it, as he arranged for the sale of some of the music he hadbrought with him.Visitors to Venice had borne witness to Vivaldi's prowess asa violinist, although some found his performance more remarkable thanpleasurable. He certainly explored the full possibilities of the instrument,while perfecting the newly developing form of the Italian solo concerto. Heleft nearly five hundred concertos. Many of these were for the violin, butthere were others for a variety of solo instruments or for groups ofinstruments. He claimed to be able to compose a new work quicker than a copyistcould write it out, and he clearly coupled immense facility with a remarkablecapacity for variety within the confines of the three-movement form, with itsfaster outer movements framing a central slow movement.The girls at the Piet?\xe1 had a wide variety of instrumentsavailable to them, in addition to the usual strings and keyboard instruments ofthe basic orchestra. These included the bassoon, for which Vivaldi wrote 39concertos, two of which are seemingly incomplete. The reason for such a numberof concertos for a relatively unusual solo instrument is not known, and thefact that one concerto is inscribed to Count Morzin, a patron of Vivaldi fromBohemia and a cousin of Haydn's early patron, and another to a musician inVenice, Gioseppino Biancardi, reveals little, although it has been suggestedthat Biancardi represented an earlier tradition of bassoon playing, as a

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