Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
Complete Bassoon Concertos Volume 1: RV 471, 476, 480, 487,
493, 498 & 503
Known in his native Venice as the red priest, from the
inherited colour of his hair, Antonio Vivaldi was born in 1678, the son of a
barber who later served as a violinist at the great Basilica of St Mark.
Vivaldi studied for the priesthood and was ordained in 1703. At the same time
he won a reputation for himself as a violinist of phenomenal ability and was
appointed violin-master at the Ospedale della Pietà. This last was one of four
such charitable institutions, established for the education of orphan, indigent
or illegitimate girls and boasting a particularly fine musical tradition. Here
the girls were trained in music, some of the more talented continuing to serve
there as assistant teachers, earning the dowry necessary for marriage.
Vivaldi’s association with the Pietà continued intermittently throughout his
life, from 1723 under a contract that provided for the composition of two new
concertos every month. At the same time he enjoyed a connection with the
theatre, as the composer of some fifty operas, director and manager. He finally
left Venice in 1741, travelling to Vienna, where there seemed some possibility
of furthering his career under imperial patronage, or perhaps with the idea of
travelling on to the court at Dresden, where his pupil Pisendel was working. He
died in Vienna a few weeks after his arrival in the city, in relative poverty.
At one time he had been worth 50,000 ducats a year, it seemed, but now had
little to show for it, as he arranged for the sale of some of the music he had
brought with him.
Visitors to Venice had borne witness to Vivaldi’s prowess as
a violinist, although some found his performance more remarkable than
pleasurable. He certainly explored the full possibilities of the instrument,
while perfecting the newly developing form of the Italian solo concerto. He
left nearly five hundred concertos. Many of these were for the violin, but
there were others for a variety of solo instruments or for groups of
instruments. He claimed to be able to compose a new work quicker than a copyist
could write it out, and he clearly coupled immense facility with a remarkable
capacity for variety within the confines of the three-movement form, with its
faster outer movements framing a central slow movement.
The girls at the Pietà had a wide variety of instruments
available to them, in addition to the usual strings and keyboard instruments of
the basic orchestra. These included the bassoon, for which Vivaldi wrote 39
concertos, two of which are seemingly incomplete. The reason for such a number
of concertos for a relatively unusual solo instrument is not known, and the
fact that one concerto is inscribed to Count Morzin, a patron of Vivaldi from
Bohemia and a cousin of Haydn’s early patron, and another to a musician in
Venice, Gioseppino Biancardi, reveals little, although it has been suggested
that Biancardi represented an earlier tradition of bassoon playing, as a master
of its predecessor, the dulcian. This is implied by the avoidance of the bottom
note of the later instrument, B flat. The bassoon was in general an essential
element in the characteristic German court orchestra of the eighteenth century,
doubling the bass line and found in proportionately greater numbers than is now
usual. The orchestral bassoon part was not written out, unless it differed, as
it very occasionally did, from the bass line played by the cello, double bass
and continuo. The fact that bassoons are specifically mentioned as being among
those played by the girls of the Pietà seems to indicate that they were used
there for this purpose at least. There had been solo works written for the
instrument during the seventeenth century and technical changes led to a number
of solo concertos by the middle of the eighteenth century. Nevertheless the
quantity of bassoon concertos written by Vivaldi remains unusual.
Fourteen of Vivaldi’s bassoon concertos are in C major. The
Concerto in C major, RV 476, starts with a lively ritornello before the entry
of the soloist and the alternation of orchestral and solo passages, the latter
calling for considerable virtuosity. The slow movement provides the bassoon
with an aria which explores a full range of the instrument, its low notes in
contrast to the tenor register of the principal part of the melody. The
principle of alternating orchestral ritornello and solo passages is duly
followed in the energetic last movement.
The Concerto in F major, RV 487, starts with the expected
orchestral introduction, before the entry of the solo bassoon, the solo
passages marked by characteristic figuration and a use of the full range of the
solo instrument. The slow movement allows the solo instrument wide leaps and
the lively final Allegro calls for considerable agility from the soloist.
Vivaldi’s Concerto in C major, RV 471, opens with the usual
ritornello, elements of which are to be found in a second-act soprano aria in
Vivaldi’s opera La Griselda. The opening is echoed by the solo bassoon, which
goes on to more rapid virtuoso figuration. The slow movement, marked Larghetto,
offers an A minor tenor aria, with occasional descents to the depths,
accompanied by the often unison textures of the string orchestra. The first
solo episode of the final Allegro has wide contrasts of register, notably in a
downward leap of two octaves, a continuing feature of the writing for the
bassoon.
The Concerto in A minor, RV 498, has an effective opening
ritornello, leading to a first bassoon episode with wide leaps and a structure
based on sequences. The F major central Larghetto has a lyrical bassoon aria,
again with an almost antiphonal use of upper and lower registers of the solo
instrument. The minor key duly returns for the last movement, the solo bassoon
entry marked by sequential writing.
The Concerto in C minor, RV 480, starts with a unison
ritornello, elaborated before the solo entry. The returning orchestral
framework duly modulates, providing a structure for the solo passages, with
their wide leaps and contrasts of register. The direction Andantino quasi
minuetto, an editorial addition, indicates the metrical structure of the
movement, in 3/8. It is followed by a dramatic final Allegro.
One of four concertos in this key, the Concerto in B flat
major, RV 503, has an opening ritornello of abrupt contrasts, before the entry
of the bassoon, with its wide leaps and later smoother sequential elements. The
G minor slow movement starts in a mood of melancholy, continued in a lyrical
bassoon solo. The ritornello of the last movement starts with a descending
figure, before moving to a climax. The solo episodes alternate the virtuoso
with the lyrical in an effective conclusion.
The Concerto in G major, RV 493, starts with a movement in
the usual ritornello structure, containing solo episodes in characteristic
figuration. The slow movement is an E minor aria for the solo bassoon, and the
last movement is impelled forward with the customary energy, the virtuoso solo
passages discreetly accompanied.
Keith Anderson