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Antonio Vivaldi 1678–1741 Complete Cello Concertos 65’38

16 17 18

Concerto in G RV414 I. Allegro molto II. Andante III. Presto

3’27 2’47 3’12

19 20 21

Concerto in G minor RV416 I. Allegro II. Adagio (Largo) III. Allegro

3’32 3’11 2’47

with strings and basso continuo Compact Disc 1

1 2 3

Concerto in D minor RV405 I. (Without tempo indication) II. Adagio III. Allegro

2’39 3’47 2’18

4 5 6

Concerto in G minor RV417 I. Allegro II. Andante III. Allegro

2’41 3’53 3’00

7 8 9

10 11 12

13 14 15

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Concerto in D RV403 I. Allegro II. (Without tempo indication) III. Allegro Concerto in F RV410 I. Allegro II. Adagio, solo a piacimento III. (Without tempo indication) Concerto in A minor RV420 I. Andante II. Adagio III. Allegro

2’48 1’41 2’37

3’19 3’49 3’26

3’43 3’23 3’26

Compact Disc 2

55’25

1 2 3

Concerto in A minor RV418 I. Allegro II. (Without tempo indication) III. Allegro

3’54 3’20 2’56

4 5 6

Concerto in C minor RV401 I. Allegro non molto II. Adagio III. Allegro ma non molto

4’03 2’19 2’51

7 8 9

Concerto in G RV413 I. Allegro II. Largo III. Allegro

2’58 3’49 2’52

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10 11 12

Concerto in G RV415 I. Allegro II. Siciliana III. Alla breve

2’34 3’06 3’02

10 11 12

Concerto in F RV411 I. Allegro II. Largo III. Allegro molto

2’48 1’20 1’56

13 14 15

Concerto in A minor RV419 I. Allegro II. Andante III. Allegro

3’31 3’00 1’33

13 14 15

Concerto in D RV404 I. (Without tempo indication) II. Affettuoso III. Allegro

2’45 1’50 3’02

16 17 18

Concerto in B minor RV424 I. Allegro non molto II. Largo III. Allegro

3’39 2’25 3’23

16 17 18

Concerto in C RV398 I. Allegro II. Largo III. (Without tempo indication)

2’39 1’53 2’09

52’54

19 20 21

Concerto in C minor RV402 I. Allegro II. Adagio III. Allegro

3’21 3’06 2’21

Compact Disc 3

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1 2 3

Concerto in D minor RV406 I. Allegro non molto II. Andante III. Minuet

2’49 2’20 4’44

4 5 6

Concerto in A minor RV421 I. Allegro non troppo II. (Without tempo indication) III. Allegro

2’59 1’59 2’22

1 2 3

Concerto in F RV412 I. (Without tempo indication) II. Larghetto III. Allegro

2’40 2’00 2’17

7 8 9

Concerto in C RV399 I. Allegro II. Largo III. (Without tempo indication)

2’06 2’00 2’12

4 5 6

Concerto in D minor RV407 I. Allegro II. Largo III. Allegro

3’09 3’12 3’04

Compact Disc 4

59’54

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Francesco Galligioni cello

7 8 9

Concerto in C RV400 I. Allegro II. Largo III. Allegro non molto

10 11 12

Concerto in E minor RV409 with bassoon obligato I. Adagio – Allegro molto II. Allegro – Adagio III. Allegro

4’37 1’13 2’26

13 14 15

Concerto in B flat RV423 I. Allegro II. Largo III. Allegro

3’23 2’32 3’34

16 17 18

Concerto in E flat RV408 I. Allegro non molto II. Largo III. Allegro

3’25 3’26 2’07

19 20 21

Concerto in A minor RV422 I. Allegro II. Largo cantabile III. Allegro

3’04 2’55 2’35

2’52 2’45 2’28

L’Arte dell’Arco on original instruments Federico Guglielmo violin I & concertmaster Gianpiero Zanocco violin II (CDs 1, 2 & 4) · Francesca Bonomo violin II (CD3) Simone Laghi viola · Alberto Guerra 2-keyed bassoon (CD4) Giuseppe Barutti cello (CD1) · Federico Toffano cello (CD2) Paolo Zuccheri 8-foot violone (CDs 3 & 4) · Alessando Pivelli double bass (CD1) Mauro Zavagno double bass (CD2) · Roberto Loreggian harpsichord & chamber organ Giammichele Costantin chamber organ (CD4, RV412) · Ivano Zanenghi theorbo (CDs 1, 3 & 4) Diego Cantalupi theorbo & Baroque guitar (CD2)

Recording: 20–23 January, 17–19 February, 14–16 April & 26–29 May 2014, Abbey of St Mary of Carceri, Padua, Italy Producer, recording engineer & editor: Fabio Framba Instruments: Paolo Antonio Testore, Milan, c.1740 (CDs 1, 2 & 4); five-string cello, French, 19th century (CD3) Liner note and Galligioni biography translation: Kate Singleton Booklet photos: Gregor Khuen Belasi (Galligioni); Fabio Framba (L’Arte dell’Arco)  & 훿 2015 Brilliant Classics

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Antonio Vivaldi’s Cello Concertos Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice on Sunday 4 March 1678, shortly after a terrible earthquake that devastated the city, leaving death and destruction in its wake. At the time it seemed as though the city was ill fated, the Most Serene Republic having lost much of its political, economic and cultural power and influence. Yet despite this adversity, music remained a vital part of the city’s activities. The Doge’s Chapel, the Confraternità organisations of the ‘major’ and ‘minor’ schools, the parish churches and convents, the charitable institutions that provided the poor with some degree of assistance, and indeed the numerous theatres and aristocratic salons all resounded with intense musical activity that was acknowledged and admired throughout Europe. One such institution was the Ospedale di S. Maria della Visitazione or della Pietà, an orphanage ‘open to foundlings of unknown birth on account of human weakness or violence, where Venetians … could see fit to make up for physical and moral human suffering by providing under the same roof musical amenities by way of a most efficacious medicine and comfort’. Here Vivaldi was appointed maestro di violino for a yearly income of around 100 ducats. In the works printed at his behest by the publisher Sala, Vivaldi described himself as ‘… don Antonio Vivaldi, violinist, Venetian teacher’, which sums up the two aspects of his busy life: teaching and composition. It is not always clear which of these two activities predominated. Certainly the presentation of the Trio Sonatas, a genre that was very widespread at the time, along with numerous concertos, paved the way for the teaching post at the Ospedale della Pietà in 1703. And when he later obtained the position as maestro de’ concerti, Vivaldi could indulge his passion for the concerto, no doubt in keeping with a temperament that was more fervent than meditative or ascetic.

No longer tied to the basso numerato tradition or to that of two violins playing in fugue or canon together, the concerto potentially embodied the ‘flair and brilliance’ of a new way of using instruments, both in the form of a dialogue between soloist and ensemble, and for the purposes of teaching. This new approach to composition drew numerous ‘counsellors, experts in music’ to Venice from all over Europe, bent on acquiring whatever was new so

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that they could return to their homelands with music that would dazzle a range of potential audiences, from publishers to princes and composers. One case in point was J.S. Bach, no less, who was particularly sensitive to what was going on in Venice. The innovative transformation of the trio sonata and the concerto grosso into a proper concerto with a solo instrument was undoubtedly due to Tartini as well as to Vivaldi, not least on account of the improvement of new instruments built in Cremona, whereby changes in bow construction and in the strings allowed for sounds that were slow and melodious, but also much richer in harmonics. In keeping with these developments, performance technique also progressed, as though it were competing with virtuoso vocal exploits.

Vivaldi’s cello concertos belong to the decades in which technical and instrumental developments contributed to the gradual obsolescence of the traditional approach to playing the large viol and the viola. The Ryom catalogue comprises 36 concertos: 27 for solo cello, one for two cellos, three for violin and cello, two for two violins and cello, one for one violin and two cellos, and two for two violins and two cellos. This variety of solo instrument combinations not only reflects how Vivaldi favoured both instruments, but also a lively, extravagant musical vein that comes to the fore in virtuoso passages with plenty of arpeggios (even in the higher and lower registers), in the protracted use of scales, in serried rhythm, and in the distribution of simple or contrasting subjects unified by key. Although it is not possible to date the individual concertos precisely, it is interesting to note that between the single scores belonging to the Von Schönborn library and those of the Turin collection there is a progression, from pieces that can be easily performed by the left hand in normal position and with few double notes to compositions featuring frequent use of staccato, intervals and the use of two strings in sequences of rapid semiquavers leading to increasingly high notes.

Yet the essential elements of the cello concertos are the rhythm and melody, which provide fascinating insights into the composer’s own character. For listeners, the variety and interplay of rhythm, the emphatic use of ostinato, the contrasting values of the instrumental ensemble, and the taste for syncopation, as well as for ternary and binary form, are immediately recognisable as features belonging to Italian music, and to Vivaldi’s compositions in particular. As the earlier monodic style of secular and church music began to wane, melody

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came into its own with increasing use of arpeggio, progression, augmentation, and ornamental and rhythmic variation. All of these compositional techniques contributed to the ‘colour’ of the concerto: the deep sounds of the cello, especially in certain adagios, resound in the listener’s inner ear like a passionate, impelling voice. This is no longer the descriptive musicality of the Four Seasons, but an emanation of hidden mystical individualism. 훿 Gilberto & Francesco Galligioni

Instruments and interpretation My passion for the works of Antonio Vivaldi is deeply rooted in the distant past. His music has nurtured me since my days as a conservatoire student, and has continued to be part of my daily life as a continuo player for many excellent soloists in Baroque orchestras and ensembles.

I believe that all these cello scores derive from the basso continuo line: rather as the magnificent palaces of Venice could not exist without the wooden piles that support them like a submerged forest, so Vivaldi’s music is founded on a highly refined, essential bass part. For this reason I have paid particular attention to the make-up of the basso continuo ensemble.

In the more complex compositions, alongside the organ and the harpsichord, I chose to add various combinations of instruments.

CD1 ‘L.D.M.B.D.A.’ I think of the concertos that require lightness despite their intrinsic complexity as somehow ‘solemn’, and thus best played by a solo cello, or a cello accompanied by 16-foot violone.

L.D.M.B.D.A. is a monogram used by Vivaldi at the beginning of certain works that he composed for the Pietà orphanage around 1716, and for the scores of Bajazet, L’Olimpiade and Teuzzone. According to Reinhard Strohm, the letters stand for Laus Deo Beatae Marie Deiparae Amen (‘Praise God, the blessed Mary and the Son of God. Amen’) (Talbot).

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CD2 violoncello a 5 corde For the solo instrument, apart from the traditional cello I have also used a five-stringed violoncello piccolo. This was not to avoid particularly high positions, but because I felt it better suited a composition requiring a high string. The violoncello piccolo proved to be the best instrument for playing a number of Vivaldi concertos, as it allowed for symmetry in the bariolage passages (‘bariolage’ is a special effect obtained by the alteration between open and stopped strings) and easier performance of those passages that call for typically violin-style fingering, such that they can also be played on a cello with an extremely short neck and/or five strings.

CD3 ‘per la figlia di coro Teresa’ For the simpler concertos I have used just an eight-foot large viol, with the solo cello as extra support in the tutti orchestra passages.

Teresa was one of the ‘daughters of the choir’, or choirgirls, who also played the cello.

The inscription features on the parts of the two Vivaldi cello concertos, RV 787 and 788, which have come down to us incomplete.

CD4 con il fagotto In RV409 Vivaldi specifically indicated the bassoon as the continuo instrument. For this reason I also chose to add the instrument, which the composer was particularly fond of, to two other concertos as well. The instrument used is an original late-17th-century two-keyed bassoon.

The presence of the Baroque guitar or a lute further enhances the ensemble with delicate countermelody, accompanying the cello rather as the gentle lapping of water accompanies whoever walks through the alleys of Venice. 훿 Francesco Galligioni

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Francesco Galligioni studied cello at the Conservatorio ‘C. Pollini’ in Padua with Gianni Chiampan, and following his Diploma participated in masterclasses with Michael Flaksman and Teodora Campagnaro. He then studied with Franco Maggio Ormezowski at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and the Fondazione Arturo Toscanini in Parma. He also attended Baroque cello masterclasses held by Walter Vestidello and Gaetano Nasillo, later working with early music specialists of international fame such as Anner Bylsma, Giuliano Carmignola, Andrea Marcon, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Diego Fasolis, Sergio Azzolini, Bob van Asperen, Gustav Leonhardt and Christopher Hogwood. His passion for early music led him to study the viola da gamba with Paolo Biordi at the Conservatoire in Florence, where he took a further Diploma in 2007.

Galligioni was a founder member of the Accademia di San Rocco and the Venice Baroque Orchestra, both of which he often performs with as principal cello in concert halls around the world, including the Royal Albert Hall in London, Carnegie Hall in New York, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Tonhalle in Zurich, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris and Teatro La Fenice in Venice. He has also performed with the Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca, I Barocchisti, Accordone, the Oman Consort, the Incogniti, L’Arte dell’Arco, Opera Stravagante and the Gambe di Legno Consort.

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Galligioni plays principal cello in the L’Aura Soave group conducted by Sergio Azzolini, an ensemble with which he has recorded two CDs for the Vivaldi Edition on the Naïve label.

Apart from his many recordings with the Venice Baroque Orchestra, he has also recorded trios with Giuliano Carmignola and Lutz Kirchhof, and sonatas with Anner Bylsma. He regularly plays with the L’Estravagante chamber ensemble. At present he teaches cello at the Conservatorio ‘N. Paganini’ in Genoa.

Galligioni plays a cello built by Paolo Antonio Testore in 1740 and an original early-18th-century viola da gamba.

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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 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 appeared with acclaimed artists such as Christopher Hogwood (guest conductor from 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.

L’Arte dell’Arco has been particularly prolific in the recording studio, 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), as well as 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.

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