Archi

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (4 January 1710 – 16 or 17 March 1736) was an Italian composer, violinist and organist.
Born at Jesi, Pergolesi studied music there under a local musician, Francesco Santini, before going to Naples in 1725, where he studied under Gaetano Greco and Francesco Feo among others. He spent most of his brief life working for aristocratic patrons like the Colonna principe di Stigliano, and duca Marzio IV Maddaloni Carafa.

Half the concertos here are dedicated to Johann Georg Pisendel, a stern German soloist who led the Dresden court orchestra and was close friends with J.S. Bach, Telemann and Zelenka, all of whose music he often performed or even premiered. Pisendel adopted the other Vivaldi concertos on this CD into his repertoire, too - copying them out in his own hand from the originals. This theme does not mean that Vivaldi writes in a Germanic way: he’s still his usual fiercely lively self. (Brian Reinhart)

This is the 49th title in the Vivaldi Edition and the 5th volume, out of approximately 12, of the series dedicated to the violin concertos whose manuscripts are held in the National Library of Turin. All the concertos selected here are linked to German violinist Johann Georg Pisendel, member of the Dresden orchestra, who spent time in Venice in 1716-17, with the Electoral Prince of Saxony Friedrich August. Vivaldi and Pisendel became very close friends and the Red Priest composed several works for Pisendel.

You say your favorite Vivaldi passage is the Four Seasons summer storm? Well, here's a disc for you. Fabio Biondi and the Europa Galante (known to many for their bestselling Seasons disc) focus on concerti con titoli, the titled concertos the Red Priest wrote that are full of inventive drama and expression. Writing for his student orchestra, the composer employed plenty of creativity in his instrumentation, and, as evidenced on a few tracks here, he wasn't beyond recycling motifs from his older works.

The trend in historical performances of Vivaldi's violin concertos has been to have the violinist serve as leader of the ensemble, as would likely have happened in Vivaldi's time. But Vivaldi's music, like Bach's, contains multitudes of ideas, and one way to look at the concertos, especially the late ones heard here, is to regard them as part, and indeed as a foundation, of the virtuoso tradition that grew up over the 18th century.