Vivaldi World Premiere IL gran mogol for flute, strings and continuo

Katy Bircher Flute La Serenissima Adrian Chandler director / violin (1678 – 1741)

Concerto Il Gran Mogol for flute, strings & continuo in d, RV 431a x:xx 1 Allegro non molto x:xx 2 Larghetto x:xx 3 Allegro x:xx WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING

Katy Bircher · Flute La Serenissima Adrian Chandler · Violin & Director

Performed on period instruments nowledge that Vivaldi’s concerto in D mi­ The choice of key, D minor, is unusual for an nor for transverse flute, strings and conti­ eighteenth-century flute concerto (since the K nuo, ‘Il Gran Mogol’, is in existence came flute, in this period, favoured ‘sharp’ keys), and to light in April 2010. The only known copy of not one used by Vivaldi in any other of his sur­ this work is a set of incomplete parts (a second viving solo for the instrument; it may violin part is missing) among the papers of the be a feature that nods to the work’s suggestive Marquesses of Lothian, which were purchased title. The title, ‘Il Gran Mogol’, is written on the by the National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh, manuscript, and indicates that it is one of the in 1991. How did the concerto find its way to four lost concertos with characteristic titles Scotland? A clue is suggested by the rising pop­ listed in the 1759 sale catalogue of the Dutch ularity of the transverse flute among gentle- bookseller, Nicolaas Selhof of The Hague; the men amateurs in the early eighteenth century. others, being called ‘La Francia’, ‘La Spagna’ Indeed, we know that one early eighteenth-cen­ and ‘L’Inghilterro’, are not known to survive – tury member of the Marquesses of Lothian fam­ or they may survive, without their titles, among ily, Lord Robert Kerr (?c.1719–1746), played the the known works. As listed in the catalogue, it flute as a boy or young adolescent from appears they formed a series of ‘national’ con­ accounts compiled by his tutor, the mathema­ certos (‘Il Gran Mogol’ being representative of tician Colin Maclaurin: they reveal that ‘a Mu­ the Mughal Empire or India), and would have sick book’ and ‘a flute’ were bought for him formed, as a quartet, perhaps an equivalent to some time between 15 June 1731 and 30 March the series of violin concertos known collective­ 1732, and that by 30 March 1732 he had received ly as ‘The Four Seasons’. Notwithstanding its three months’ tuition from an unnamed ‘Musick many Vivaldian hallmarks and mention in the master’. If we are correct in supposing Lord catalogue, the authenticity of ‘Il Gran Mogol’ is Robert’s ownership of the ‘Il Gran Mogol’ manus­ confirmed by the fact that another flute concer­ cript, the current evidence suggests that he to by him in E minor (RV431), known from an probably acquired it on Grand Tour to the Con­ autograph manuscript, is a reworked (simpli­ tinent around the mid-1730s or slightly later. fied) version of it. ‘Il Gran Mogol’ is a wonderful work, a fine addition to the repertory of solo woodwind con­ certos that Vivaldi wrote in the 1730s, notwith­ standing its exotic title and unexpected Scottish connection. The existence of RV 431 has enabled Andrew Woolley to reconstruct the missing second violin part with some confidence: the two works are, by and large, closely related, but some passages were completely re-composed in the later version, while the flute part was revised throughout.

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