#baroque concerto

[mikrokosmos]

Bach - Harpsichord Concerto in E Major, BWV 1053 (c. 1738)

Bach was impressed by the inventiveness and fireworks of Vivaldi’s concertos, and helped him gain more interest in the genre. His harpsichord concertos for the most part were transcriptions of earlier concertos for other instruments. BWV 1053 was most likely a revision of concertos for oboe and for organ. Despite the ‘limited’ sonorities - only strings and harpsichord - the texture is thick with constantly moving parts that help fill out the soundscape. The first movement revolves around simple motivic cells that propel the music forward. The sonorities are pretty low, with more emphasis on the middle and lower registers of the instruments, and overall it has a summery mood. The second movement is a nocturnal Siciliano, that sways along through different keys as the harpsichord decorates. The last movement is the brightest, with the most outwardly virtuosic keyboard moments full of scales and arpeggios.

[mikrokosmos]

Vivaldi - Flute Concerto in g minor op.10 no.2 “La Notte” (1728)

This is a very, very, unorthodox performance of the work, taking unexpected tempo changes after each phrase. It gives the music a disturbed, halting, hesitant drive to it as if we are being paralyzed by anxiety. A tinge of fear, the wind blowing leaves through a long ally way, a part of the city you don’t know where the street lamps flicker. It bursts into the typical Vivaldi shredding rhythms, “Phantoms”, again the performers pause and unsettle the mood. The next movement opens with a calmer slow theme, the flute blowing over the strings in this tiny chamber orchestra. Then the next movement is much happier and feels like a movement from one of the Four Seasons, maybe Autumn with a sense of enjoying the colors of the leaves, but there is still a coldness that’s immediately against our skin. The next movement opens with a long sustained chord that doesn’t help orient us until the progression shows we are in the minor key, this movement called “sleep”. Another pause in the creeping stillness. It morphs into another allegro, keeping the mood up with dazzling rapid-fire notes. The amazing thing about many baroque concertos is how they are scored for tiny “orchestras”. Here, we have the flute, two violins, a viola, and a basso continuo that is a cello and harpsichord. Ditch the harpsichord and we have a flute quintet ensemble, which wouldn’t be popular until the late classical era. It’s also interesting to me at least how the flute here is a ghostly voice among the instruments, feeling like it evokes the wind, or phantoms [real or psychological]. When most of the flute repertoire portrays it as a delicate pretty little instrument, any piece that makes the flute sound more sinister gets my attention. Vivaldi also shapes this concerto in a less conventional way, six movements that alternate between slow and fast.

Movements:

1. Largo

2. Presto (Fantasmi)

3. Largo

4. Presto

5. Largo (Il sonno)

6. Allegro

[mikrokosmos]

Bach - Concerto for 2 violins in d minor, BWV. 1043 (c.1720)

The “Double” concerto has become one of Bach’s more popular works. I think the popularity comes from the clear Vivaldi influence, and how the music has the same sense if spontaneity and flow, while at the same time including fugal and canon like moments in the instruments. It also does a good job of balancing the two soloists so neither violin outshines the other. The first movement rushes us into the drama with an orchestral introduction, and the soloists later come in with the melody in a call-and-response. The soloists’ passages are interrupted every now and then with the repetition of the tutti. I particularly love the moments where one soloist plays the theme as the other plays a drone note, that makes me think of old Medieval organum, or how the planets are fixed in orbit around the sun. Then comes the highlight of the work, the slow movement, which is a glorious passage of instrumental music. The two violins trade off the melody that weaves together over a slow but deliberately forward chord progression. The subtle dissonances that resolve right after they’re introduced keep us hooked to the next note, making an itch that it immediately scratches, and is almost drug like in making us long for consonance, and for repetition. I think this is why so many people love the movement, and why they are taken in almost as if by magic. The last movement brings us back to the minor key drama, and while the rhythm changes, it still carries us to the end in an energetic rush.

Movements:

1. Vivace

2. Largo ma non tanto

3. Allegro

[mikrokosmos]

Vivaldi - Cello Concerto in a minor, RV 420 (published posth.)

One of my guilty pleasures is listening to a whole bunch of Vivaldi concertos at once. They are short and so easy to fall into, that I end up listening to them back to back for an hour at least. While the violin concertos are most popular and plentiful, I realized I had an album of his cello concertos that I had picked up but didn’t listen to yet. So I listened to them. And wow was I blown away. I expected the vibrancy and energy that comes with Vivaldi, but the rich tone of the cello sounds fantastic when put in the forefront. The opening movement of this concerto starts with the cello stringing out one main theme, singing along over a basso continuo that includes a soft droning organ. Soon the rest of the orchestra comes in with the ritornello, which is a light canon over a pulse and slight variation. It follows the typical formula, shifting into the major for a bit and then ending in the minor, like clockwork the instruments work together. The second movement opens with bold chords that feel like a royal procession. If I were a movie director, this is where the Duke of Venice would walk into the ball, and everyone pauses to bow to him, and then they return to their light dancing as the cello glides along over the same pulse. The last movement is an expected rush with fiery strings racing along, and again I think of a storm and crashing waves, which is why I am paring this work with an Ivan Aivazovsky painting instead of something contemporary to Vivaldi.

Movements:

1. Andante

2. Adagio

3. Allegro

Ivan Aivazovsky - Ships in a Storm (1860)

[mikrokosmos]

Vivaldi - L’estro armonico, op.3

Twelve concertos for stringed instrument ensembles. I rarely post one of these “large” videos on youtube that have complete sets of music, mostly because I’d prefer to highlight single works from those sets and write about them. But I discovered and fell in love with this set a few weeks ago. I’m familiar with Vivaldi’s Contest between Harmony and Invention, which includes the Four Seasons, and perhaps it was my own naivety that I felt I didn’t need to explore Vivaldi beyond that. I was thinking of him in superficial ways, in simplistic ways, laughing and agreeing with Stravinsky’s quip that ‘Vivaldi wrote the same concerto 500 times’. But every so often, I’d find myself coming back to Vivaldi as a “guilty pleasure”, not even realizing that there isn’t anything to be guilty about. The music is lively, fresh, and while formulaic, the formula works. This same set was influential to none other than J.S. Bach, who studied the works and incorporated Vivaldi’s sense of rhythmic diversity into his own concertos [Bach even transcribed a few of the concertos for organ and they are awesome]. I can’t help but over-Romanticize it; it has the same vibrance and color as the Byzantine inspired architecture along Venice’s canals. And each concerto is short enough that they are easy to listen through. All of the concertos are for stringed instruments, solo, two, or four violins, and the cello has extensive solo passages in some of the works. I will highlight my personal favorites from the set:

Concertos

1. in D Major for 4 violins 2. in g minor for 2 violins ( 7:40 ) 3. in G Major for solo violin ( 17:28 ) 4. in e minor for 4 violins 5. in A Major for 2 violins 6. in a minor for solo violin 7. in F Major for 4 violins 8. in a minor for 2 violins ( 55:54 ) 9. in D Major for solo violin 10. in b minor for 4 violins ( 1:12:27 ) 11. in d minor for 2 violins ( 1:21:05 ) 12. in E Major for solo violin

[lesser-known-composers]

Francesco Durante: Concerto No. 2 in G minor

Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini

[00:00] I. Affettuoso - Presto [06:05] II. Largo Affettuoso [09:50] III. Allegro

[steampunk-and-junk]

Excentrique 2013 Autumn Collection Baroque Concerto