I think you will love this music too: Vivaldi - Camerata Romana, Eugen Duvier

Tuesday, September 6, 2022

Vivaldi - Camerata Romana, Eugen Duvier – L'estro Armonico

This is my post from this week's Tuesday Blog.

For our first Tuesday Blog after our Summer break, I have prepared a Cover2Cover post of Vivaldi’s complete L’estro armónico.

L'estro armonico (The Harmonic Inspiration) is a set of 12 concertos for stringed instruments first published in Amsterdam in 1711. L'estro armonico was his first collection of Vivaldi concertos appearing in print.

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.

The performances are from the early days of digital recording, when the Point Classics label issued a good number of decent performances at budget price – more on that and conductor Alfred Schotz in a montage in October.

The recordings have been oft reissued, either as two separate CDs or as a 2 CD set. The senond CD (concerti 8-12) adds a concerto from La Stravaganza (op. 4, no. 2) as filler.

Happy Listening!

Antonio VIVALDI (1678-1741)

L'estro armonico, 12 concertos for 1-4 solo instruments, strings and continuo, Op. 3 (1711)