95044 vivaldi bl2 v2 by Klassiek.nl

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Antonio Vivaldi 1678–1741 12 Concertos Op.7 12 Concerti à Cinque Stromenti (Amsterdam, 1720) World premiere recording authorised and based on the Critical Edition by Alessandro Borin, Istituto Italiano Antonio Vivaldi, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice Compact Disc 1

47’06

1 2 3

Concerto No.11 in D RV208a for violin, strings and basso continuo I. Allegro II. Grave III. Allegro

4’27 1’20 3’31

4 5 6

Concerto No.10 in F RV294a ‘Il ritiro’ for violin, strings and basso continuo I. Allegro II. Grave III. Allegro

3’03 1’32 3’07

7 8 9

Concerto No.4 in A minor RV354 for violin, strings and basso continuo I. Allegro II. Adagio III. Allegro

2’53 2’46 3’03

Concerto No.2 in C RV188 for violin, strings and basso continuo 10 I. Allegro 11 II. Largo 12 III. Allegro

3’13 2’06 2’08

Concerto No.3 in G minor RV326 for violin, strings and basso continuo 13 I. Allegro 14 II. Grave 15 III. Presto

2’48 2’00 1’42

Concerto No.6 in B flat RV374 for violin, strings and basso continuo 16 I. Allegro 17 II. Largo 18 III. Allegro

2’46 2’00 2’34

Compact Disc 2

1 2 3

Concerto No.12 in D RV214 for violin, strings and basso continuo I. Allegro II. Grave assai III. Allegro

42’49

2’33 2’03 2’17

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4 5 6

Concerto No.8 in G RV299 for violin, strings and basso continuo I. Allegro II. Largo cantabile III. Allegro

2’01 1’24 1’57

7 8 9

Concerto No.9 in B flat RV373 for violin, strings and basso continuo I. Allegro II. Grave spiccato III. Alla breve

3’26 2’34 3’38

Concerto No.5 in F RV285a for violin, strings and basso continuo 10 I. Allegro 11 II. Grave 12 III. Allegro

3’17 2’47 2’45

Concerto No.1 in B flat RV Anh.142 (RV465) (doubtful)* for oboe, strings and basso continuo 13 I. Allegro 14 II. Adagio 15 III. Allegro

2’16 1’42 1’49

Concerto No.7 in B flat RV Anh.141 (RV464) (doubtful)* for oboe, strings and basso continuo 16 I. Allegro 17 II. Largo 18 III. Allegro

2’40 1’42 1’48

Federico Guglielmo solo violin & concertmaster Pier Luigi Fabretti oboe* L’Arte dell’Arco Gianpiero Zanocco violin I Isabella Bison violin II Simone Laghi viola Luigi Puxeddu cello Franco Catalini violone/double bass Roberto Loreggian harpsichord/chamber organ Fabio Framba chamber organ (RV214) Ivano Zanenghi theorbo/Baroque guitar

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Vivaldi: 12 Concertos Op.7 All in all, the two collections of concertos, L’Estro Armonico Op.3 and La Stravaganza Op.4, clearly proved to be such a success for the Amsterdam publisher Estienne Roger that he decided to print other collections between 1716 and 1720. R. Rasch’s detailed study of the numbering of the printer’s clichés resolves a number of doubts concerning the exact chronology of these works. As the edition itself declares, the opera quinta was published in the autumn of 1716, whereas the following collections respectively comprising 6 and 12 concertos, published as opera sesta and opera settima, came out in 1719 and 1720. It is more than likely that the actual selection of the pieces to be published was the work of Estienne Roger and his daughter Jeanne, who took over the family business after her father’s death, but without Vivaldi’s consent and direct control. The fact that not one of the three collections included a dedicatory epistle would appear to support this hypothesis, not least because a frontispiece of this sort could play a considerable role in the financial success of a new publication. Moreover, in those very years (1718–20), Vivaldi was employed as chamber chapel master to Prince Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt, the Governor of Mantua. Since Vivaldi had been so keen to dedicate his Op.2 collection of sonatas to Frederick IV, King of Denmark, on the occasion of the sovereign’s unexpected visit to Venice a few years earlier, it is extremely unlikely that he would have lost an opportunity for dedicating a collection to so powerful a prince, especially if this allowed him to publicise his own new position. Indeed, in the following years the composer never failed to include a dedication in the published editions of his works, from Op.8 through to Op.12. Unlike the frontispiece of the opera quinta, that of Op.7 once again mentions Vivaldi’s name in connection with his positions at the Pietà. The text reads as follows: Concerti a Cinque Stromenti, tre Violini, Alto Viola e Basso Continuo di D. Antonio Vivaldi, musico di Violino, e Maestro de Concerti del Pio Ospitale della Pietà di Venetia, Libro Primo (Libro Secondo) uno é con Oboe… (‘Concertos for Five Instruments, three Violins, Alto Viola and Basso Continuo by Don Antonio Vivaldi, violinist and Concert Master at the Pio Ospitale della Pietà in Venice, Book One (Volume Two) is with the Oboe…’).

As many eminent Vivaldi scholars have pointed out, this particular work, like the two previous collections of instrumental pieces printed in Amsterdam, was published without the composer’s direct approval or control. In this case the 12 concertos are divided into two homogeneous collections that both begin with an oboe concerto, and continue with five violin concertos. The inclusion of the two oboe concertos is certainly related to the growing popularity of the instrument, and its increasingly important role for solo performance. A few years earlier Roger himself had published a first collection of concertos for one or two oboes (Albinoni, Op.7), and in 1717 had printed a sort of anthology of oboe concertos by various composers (Sammartini, Marcello, Valentini). Although the Ryom catalogue originally included the two Op.7 oboe concertos, in recent years they have been removed from the list of original works. They feature in this recording at the end of CD2 for their documentary value. R. Rasch’s meticulous study of the scores of these two concertos and his comparative analysis of Vivaldi’s many extant manuscript compositions for the oboe have definitively demonstrated that the two works are not authentic. Indeed, Rasch argues that at least half the pieces published in Op.7 are of dubious authenticity, and C. Fertonani maintains that some of the manuscripts acquired by Roger were not supplied by Vivaldi himself, but by third parties. It is likely that Vivaldi provided the publisher with enough material for a single volume of six concertos, and that Roger independently decided to publish two more volumes, including unauthorised works from other European sources and compositions that were not actually by Vivaldi. The concerto RV354, for instance, is defined in the Manchester manuscript version as ‘bad and not by Vivaldi’. All in all, there were slightly different manuscript versions of five of the Op.7 concertos in circulation. In particular they were often simplified in form, or tended to have different central movements. Although we have no written evidence that Vivaldi was irritated by his Amsterdam publisher’s unscrupulous behaviour, for the following five years he certainly kept his distance from Roger, only returning to him for the publication of Il Cimento dell’Armonia e dell’Inventione. 훿 Federico Guglielmo Translation: Kate Singleton

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The Paduan violinist Federico Guglielmo is acclaimed by international critics for his ‘extraordinary versatility’ and ‘mature interpretive confidence’, views that are further confirmed by the appreciation garnered for his live performances and the prizes he has won for his numerous recordings. Winner of the Antonio Vivaldi International Recording Prize, he was hailed as ‘the new star of the ancient music landscape’ by the Boston Globe, while the French music magazine Diapason, which awarded him the Diapason d’Or for his recording of Vivaldi concertos, praised his ‘sparkling virtuosity which provides a cross section of everything of which the violin is capable’. His ‘brilliant and entertaining’ interpretation of Haydn’s Violin Concertos led the American critic Robert Maxham to write in Fanfare that ‘between Isaac Stern’s energetic approach to these works, those of celebrated Mozart interpreters like Szymon Goldberg and Arthur Grumiaux and the insightful explorations of Christian Tetzlaff seem like halfway houses on the journey to Guglielmo’s more full-blown re-creations. Those who admire Haydn’s concertos should be among the first to rush to acquire these performances, but everyone should join that rush sooner or later.’ Guglielmo’s international career began at just 22 when he won first prize in the Vittorio Gui Chamber Music competition in Florence; the same year, having won the national competition for teaching posts, he became the youngest professor of strings at an Italian conservatory, a post he still holds at the ‘Luigi Cherubini’ Conservatoire in Florence.

As both a Baroque and Classical violin soloist and as a conductor he is regularly invited to perform by major ensembles worldwide. He led the renowned Academy of Ancient Music on tour in England, and was subsequently invited by groups such as The Handel & Haydn Society of Boston and the Tokyo Chamber Orchestra; his debut in Sydney with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra was a sensational success, with his performances watched by over 10,000 spectators and recorded by ABC. The Daily Telegraph reported that ‘his ability to move from playing to conducting reminded us of the virtuosic players of the Baroque such as Vivaldi’, while the Sydney Morning Herald described his ‘superb technical ability demonstrated in the stratospheric passages at the very top of the fingerboard’. In 1994, together with his father, he formed the period instrument ensemble L’Arte dell’Arco, with whom he has performed in major European festivals and recorded more than 75 CDs for Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Sony/BMG Classical, Chandos, CPO, Stradivarius, ASV Gaudeamus and Rai Trade. 2011 saw the publication of the final volume of the complete 30-CD set of Tartini’s 125 violin concertos for Dynamic, and the first volume of the new Vivaldi project (19 CDs of all his published works) for Brilliant Classics. Federico Guglielmo collaborates with musicians such as Bob van Asperen, Emma Kirkby, Monica Huggett and Dan Laurin. He has performed Bach’s violin concertos with conductor Gustav Leonhardt, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the Gran Canaria Philharmonic, conducted by Christopher Hogwood, and Franz Clements’s Violin Concerto with Reinhard Goebel (first European performance in modern times). He has taught Baroque violin in Italy, Brazil and Japan and for the New South Wales Conservatory in Australia. In addition to his solo work, Federico Guglielmo also has a great passion for chamber music. He is a member of the Stradivari Trio, which he founded in 1992, and he has played with musicians such as Pieter Wispelwey, Mario Brunello, Kathleen Battle, Hansjörg Schellenberger, Wolfram Christ and Michala Petri. Chamber music recordings include Brahms Piano Trios (Dynamic), Mozart Piano Trios (CPO), named as CD of the month by the German magazine Fono Forum, and Grieg Violin Sonatas (Decca). Federico Guglielmo was born in Padua in 1968. He obtained his diploma from the ‘B. Marcello’ Conservatory in Venice and then attended violin masterclasses with

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Salvatore Accardo, Vladimir Spivakov and Isaac Stern, chamber music masterclasses with the Beaux Arts Trio, the Trieste Trio, the Amadeus Quartet, the Quartetto Italiano and the LaSalle Quartet, and an orchestral conducting masterclass with Gianluigi Gelmetti. While still very young he was concertmaster for the principal Italian symphonic orchestras for ten years – a role he is still happy to perform occasionally today with the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto. He has also won several prizes in national (Vittorio Veneto) and international (Paris, London, Canada) competitions; since then he has regularly performed at the main concert halls such as the Großer Musikvereinsaal in Vienna, Wigmore Hall in London, Società del Quartetto in Milan, Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Herkulesaal in Munich, Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall in New York, Suntory Hall, Opera City and Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo, Izumi and Symphony Hall in Osaka, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires and the City Recital Hall in Sydney. In his role as principal violin and leader of the string ensemble I Solisti Filarmonici Italiani, he has led concert tours every two years in Japan and the US since 1990, and has made more than 35 recordings for Denon Nippon Columbia. In the last few years he has concentrated more on conducting, including opera. He conducted the world premiere of Piccinni’s Il finto turco at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza (live broadcast by Rai Radio 3) and the first performance in modern times of Vivaldi’s Ottone in villa (recorded by Brilliant Classics); he was also responsible for the reworking of Domenico Scarlatti’s La Dirindina for MiTo/Settembre Musica. The CD of Handel’s Water Music (CPO) that he conducted was awarded ‘First Choice’ on BBC Radio 3’s Building a Library and was chosen as one of Gramophone’s ‘Recommended Recordings’ for its ‘splendid playing, involving and vibrant’.

About the instrument While it is true that the success of a recording largely depends on the individual musician’s ability to interpret and express a given composer’s intent and meaning, in this particular case the intrinsic nature of the instrument involved is also of the utmost significance. Thanks to a generous loan on the part of an expert private collector, for this project Federico Guglielmo was able to play a magnificent violin made by Tommaso Balestrieri. Built in Mantua around 1760, it is an instrument of great refinement and exquisite sound, as all those who listen to the recording will immediately appreciate. Little is actually known about the history of this violin, and less still about Tommaso Balestreri, despite the fact that he was one of the foremost exponents of the Mantuan school. While the exact date and place of his birth remain uncertain, however, we do know for sure that he studied with Camillo Camilli, who in his turn had been a pupil of Pietro Guarneri and possibly even of the great Antonio Stradivari. Little wonder, then, that Balestrieri should have chosen to sign all his instruments with the inscription cremonensis, an epithet well suited to his own particular elegance, for all its marked individuality. Indeed, with respect to those particular masters, Balestrieri favoured a less pronounced backplate and soundboard, and also preferred thinly applied varnishes that were lighter, more luminous and transparent, achieving a distinctive projection of sound by means of the use of different thicknesses. The extraordinary nature of the instrument thus lies in its unique character and strong personality. Guglielmo himself has described it as ‘not entirely easy, because taming its various changes of mood requires personality. Yet it is endowed with such luminous sound that the player readily forgives it for its vagaries’. The essentially technical features of the

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violin are also worthy of note, because they reflect the original Baroque conception of the instrument, with the period neck and fingerboard. The uniqueness of the instrument is further enhanced by the particular nature of the bow that has always accompanied it. The work of Carlo Annibale Tononi, the Bolognese luthier, it is a gorgeous Baroque bow made of Pernambuco (Brazilwood) with a bone tension screw and a boxwood frog. The original case, dating back to the 18th century, fits into its own coach box embellished with the coat of arms and the initials of the Colonna family of Rome, the original owners, and decorated with period paintings. The set was also furnished with candlesticks for illuminating the score, and a music stand, as well as an 18th-century manuscript copy of Bartolomeo Campagnoli’s violin method. The beauty and history of an extraordinary instrument have thus come down to us intact. Moreover, to help Federico Guglielmo interpret the work as fully as possible, these original acoustical features have been further enhanced by means of technical adjustments introduced by master luthier Giovanni Lazzaro, the technical partner in the overall project who also handled negotiations for the loan of the instrument. 훿 Giovanni Lazzaro

Pier Luigi Fabretti is renowned for his historicalinstrument performances based on the baroque to Romantic repertoire. Having obtained a first-class diploma at the Venice Conservatoire in 1982, he played first oboe in a number of symphony and opera orchestras, at the same time devoting considerable attention to contemporary music. Since 1992, when he was appointed principal oboe of the European Union Baroque Orchestra (EUBO), he has focused exclusively on performance with period instruments. Since 1996 he has been principal oboe of Les Arts Florissants, and from 1998 to 2008 he was first oboe with Concerto Köln. Currently first oboe of the Academia Montis Regalis, of which he is a member, he works regularly with eminent Baroque orchestras such as I Barocchisti, La Scintilla and Kammerorchester Basel, with which he tours frequently in Europe, the United States, Asia and South America. Fabretti has also worked closely with Il Giardino Armonico, L’Europa Galante, La Petite Bande, L’Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, Le Cercle de l’Harmonie, Orquesta Barroca de Sevilla, Piccolo Concerto Wien and Balthasar-Neumann-Ensemble, among others, under the baton of conductors such as William Christie, René Jacobs, Alessandro De Marchi, Diego Fasolis, Giovanni Antonini, Daniel Harding, Enrico Onofri, David Stern and Sigiswald Kuijken. His many recordings have met with widespread critical acclaim.

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L’Arte dell’Arco has been particularly prolific in the recording studios, releasing CDs on the labels Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Sony/BMG Classics, Chandos, Brilliant Classics, ASV, CPO, Stradivarius, Dynamic, RAI Trade and Musicaimmagine, all featuring works from the Italian Baroque repertoire. Since the release of its first recording, L’Arte dell’Arco has received prizes such as at the Premio Internazionale del Disco Antonio Vivaldi in Venice (1995, 1996), and critical acclaim from specialist classical music magazines (Diapason, Le Monde de la Musique, Repertoire, Gramophone, Classic CD, BBC Music Magazine, International Record Review, The Strad, Fanfare, American Record Guide, Fono Forum, Klassik Heute, Alte Musik Aktuell, Luister, Scherzo, Ritmo, The Record Gejiutsu, etc.) and the international press (The Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Irish Times, etc.). The Italian music magazines Amadeus, CD Classics, Orfeo and Classic Voice have featured L’Arte dell’Arco on their covers, with articles about unpublished recordings and interviews with Federico Guglielmo. In 1996 L’Arte dell’Arco embarked upon one of the most ambitious recording projects of the last decades: the complete recording of all Tartini’s concertos. The volumes were released on Dynamic to overwhelming international acclaim. Established in 1994, L’Arte dell’Arco has achieved international recognition for its concerts and recordings. The ensemble, based in Padua, consists of some of the best Italian musicians, all of whom have specialised in period-instrument performance playing with the most important European Baroque orchestras. The composition of the group varies from a small string ensemble to a full orchestra. Depending on the demands of each programme, L’Arte dell’Arco can consist of anything from 3 to 30 musicians so that it can devote itself to a wide repertoire and continue to search for and re-evaluate forgotten works. L’Arte dell’Arco is regularly invited to many important early music festivals and historic cultural venues. Its musicians perform today in all the famous European concert halls as well as in North and South America, Japan and the Far East. The group has performed with acclaimed artists such as Christopher Hogwood (guest conductor since 1997), Gustav Leonhardt, and Pieter Wispelwey. Although the orchestra still invites guest conductors and soloists for some performances each year, its artistic director/concert master, Federico Guglielmo, has given it a very definite image.

Recorded in collaboration with

Recording: 19–23 May (CD2) & 19–24 July (CD1) 2014, Abbazia di Carceri d’Este, Padua, Italy Producer, recording engineer & editor: Fabio Framba Performing edition: 훿 Universal Music Publishing Ricordi, Milan  2014 & 훿 2015 Brilliant Classics