Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
Sonate per violino, e basso per il cembalo (opus 2)
Venezia, 1709

1-4 Sonata II

5-8 Sonata III

9-12 Sonata IV

13-15 Sonata VII

16-19 Sonata I

20-23 Sonata IX

24-26 Sonata V

Despite the numerous opinions published on the works of the “young” Vivaldi (the author was actually alrdeay 30 years old when this collection came out), pointing out the Red Priest’s obvious debt to Corelli, a serious analysis of the first collections, ops. 1 and 2, clearly reveals the profound originality of the Venetian violinist. Their language is clear and transparent, as well as extremely elegant and measured.

Enrico Gatti: “Amongst the important characteristics of music are its fortuitous and ephemeral essence, the sudden loss of memory when the performance is over, and the perfume of its origin. And herein lies the artist’s responsibility, when he becomes the composer’s ‘interpreter’, when he tries to translate the composer’s language, based on signs, instead of simply assuming the role of spokesperson of himself (or for his own hysterical fury, his own thirst for fame and money). The music of Venice is not that lean, dry, sharp music that the sound of recent years has accustomed us to: it would be simplistic to see it solely as 18th-century rock music based on a highly rhythmical structure, in these times where there are no speed linits, imaginations run wild and all kinds of provocation are permitted. (...) The artist’s responsibility therefore consists in furnishing contemporary society with a plausible image –as close to reality as possible – of that distant society in its decline, for its beauty and appeal lie in its mystery, and it contains the same melancholy and brilliance as paintings from the same period...”