Complete cello concertos

Abstract

It is not all that long since, in the ranks of educated music lovers, admitting to liste¬ning to Vivaldi was something only to be admitted in a whisper, because his rrusic seemed to be too lightweight, too much like light entertainment. When it came to comparisons with the two great composers of the same era, Bach and Handel, the Venetian simply did not measure up. Was this not the priest who taught at a girls' school? The elegant plaster of Paris busts of Bach and Handel were better suited to the conservative music tradition so deeply rooted in the emerging national con¬sciousness of the nineteenth century. Overshadowed by Bach and Handel, the repu¬tation of other Baroque composers languished or even disappeared from view. During his lifetime, Vivaldi was known throughout all of Europe. As early as 17l3the Hamburg-based Johann Mattheson listed him in his book, Das Neu-Erof^te Orchestre, as one of the most important among the "most galant composers in Europe". Vivaldi, he stated, wrote in a "pleasant" manner, without recourse to cheap effects, and his music was interesting, even for connoisseurs of rrusic. Mattheson was as captivated by Vivaldi's music as any listener today. Anc yet, though this Venetian who established the solo concerto was incredibly successful rnis day, taking its virtuosity to new neights, his music disappeared from the musi¬cs world entirely after his death. Consequently, it was not possible for the publi-sers of the first German Bach edition to assign Johann Sebastian Bach's nume-ras harpsichord and organ transcriptions to Vivaldi's originals because they had snply disappeared. People were quick to forget, too, that Antonio Vivaldi had iruenced European music more than anyone of his era. Ltle is known about Vivaldi's life. The fragmentary information we do have has ben distorted by the addition of anecdote and conjecture.