Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (1678 – 1741) was an Italian
composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque
music. Along with Johann Sebastian Bach and George
Frideric Handel, Vivaldi ranks amongst the greatest
Baroque composers and his influence during his lifetime
was widespread across Europe, giving origin to many
imitators and admirers. He pioneered many developments
in orchestration, violin technique and programmatic
music. He consolidated the emerging concerto form into
a widely accepted a...(+)
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (1678 – 1741) was an Italian
composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque
music. Along with Johann Sebastian Bach and George
Frideric Handel, Vivaldi ranks amongst the greatest
Baroque composers and his influence during his lifetime
was widespread across Europe, giving origin to many
imitators and admirers. He pioneered many developments
in orchestration, violin technique and programmatic
music. He consolidated the emerging concerto form into
a widely accepted and followed idiom. He composed many
instrumental concertos, for the violin and a variety of
other musical instruments, as well as sacred choral
works and more than fifty operas. His best-known work
is a series of violin concertos known as the Four
Seasons. Many of his compositions were written for the
all-female music ensemble of the Ospedale della Pietà,
a home for abandoned children. Vivaldi began studying
for the priesthood at the age of 15 and was ordained at
25, but was given dispensation to no longer say public
Masses due to a health problem. Vivaldi also had some
success with expensive stagings of his operas in
Venice, Mantua and Vienna. After meeting the Emperor
Charles VI, Vivaldi moved to Vienna, hoping for royal
support. However, the Emperor died soon after Vivaldi's
arrival, and Vivaldi himself died in poverty less than
a year later.
After almost two centuries of decline, Vivaldi's
musical reputation underwent a revival in the early
20th century, with much scholarly research devoted to
his work. Many of Vivaldi's compositions, once thought
lost, have been rediscovered – in one case as
recently as 2006. His music remains widely popular in
the present day and is regularly played all over the
world.
L'estro armonico (The Harmonic Inspiration), 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.
The concertos belong to the concerto a 7 format, that
is: for each concerto there are seven independent
parts. In each consecutive group of three concertos,
the first is a concerto for four violins, the second
for two violins, and the third a solo violin concerto.
The cello gets solistic passages in several of the
concertos for four and two violins, so that a few of
the concertos conform to the traditional Roman concerto
grosso format where a concertino of two violins and
cello plays in contrast to a string orchestra. L'estro
armonico pioneered orchestral unisono in concerto
movements.
Vivaldi composed a few concertos specifically for
L'estro armonico, while other concertos of the set had
been composed at an earlier date. Vivaldi scholar
Michael Talbot described the set as "perhaps the most
influential collection of instrumental music to appear
during the whole of the eighteenth century".
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27estro_armonico).
Although originally scored for baroque orchestra
(Violinos, Altos, Violoncello & Cembalo) I created this
arrangement of the Concerto in E Minor (Op. 3 No. 4 RV
550) from the "L'estro armonico" (The Harmonic
Inspiration) for String Ensemble (4 Violins, 2 Violas,
Cello & Bass).
