Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (1678 – 1741) was an Italian
Baroque musical composer, virtuoso violinist, teacher,
and priest. Born in Venice, the capital of the Venetian
Republic, he is regarded as one of the greatest Baroque
composers, and his influence during his lifetime was
widespread across Europe. He composed many instrumental
concertos, for the violin and a variety of other
instruments, as well as sacred choral works and more
than forty operas. His best-known work is a series of
violin concerto...(+)
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (1678 – 1741) was an Italian
Baroque musical composer, virtuoso violinist, teacher,
and priest. Born in Venice, the capital of the Venetian
Republic, he is regarded as one of the greatest Baroque
composers, and his influence during his lifetime was
widespread across Europe. He composed many instrumental
concertos, for the violin and a variety of other
instruments, as well as sacred choral works and more
than forty operas. His best-known work is a series of
violin concertos known as the Four Seasons.
One of the greatest challenges faced by scholars of the
music of Antonio Vivaldi is the dating of his works; he
published little of his voluminous music and left many
of his manuscripts undated. The Concerto in G minor, RV
106, is one of several composed during Vivaldi's long
tenure at the Ospedale della Pietà; its date of
composition can be narrowed only to the 13-year span
between 1728, when the transverse flute was first
introduced into the school's music program, and 1741,
the year of the composer's death. And even this dating
is not entirely firm since Vivaldi's score allows for
alternate instrumentation: in addition to the continuo
part and a notated violin line, Vivaldi calls for
either a bassoon or a cello, and a flute or additional
violin. Certainly the use of winds better articulates
the piece's structure and character. One of only 23
so-called chamber concertos, the G minor concerto
underscores the four featured instruments with a
continuo part, rather than the standard ripieno
orchestral forces. Like the other concertos of its
type, the Concerto, RV 106, uses the full ensemble for
ritornello passages and smaller combinations for the
intervening episodes. While Vivaldi's music sometimes
endures complaints of predictability, one observes in
the first movement of the G minor concerto a wealth of
distinctive melodic ideas in the ritornello alone. The
opening theme, with its plaintive downward slope,
passes between the flute and violin, its final descent
lingering into the second section with its exchange of
falling lines, repeated trills, and quick repeated
notes; a third melodic section places the two voices in
serene parallel motion. This expansive opening
ritornello section returns only in piecemeal fashion:
the first episode, a nimble duet between flute and
bassoon, is answered by a brief recollection of the
trill exchanges; the opening melody returns only after
the second flute/bassoon episode and in condensed form;
the final woodwind duet leads to another exchange of
repeated notes and a return of the lush parallel-motion
melody from the ritornello's close. The slow central
movement, in the standard binary form and the relative
major key of B flat, maintains a spare, porous surface
with a simple "oom-pah" texture in the bassoon and
violin (the continuo rests) quietly underscoring the
flute's elegant melody. This sets off the rhythmic
vitality and quick triple-meter pace of the closing
ritornello-form movement.
Source: AllMusic
(https://www.allmusic.com/composition/chamber-concerto-
for-flute-or-violin-violin-bassoon-or-cello-continuo-in
-g-minor-rv-106-mc0002377089 ).
Although originally created for Flute or Violin,
Violin, Bassoon or Cello & Basso Continuo, I created
this Arrangement of the Concerto in G Minor (RV 106)
for Winds (Flute, Oboe & Bassoon) & Strings (2 Violins,
Viola & Cello).