ALSO AVAILABLE ON LINN RECORDS CKD 365 Antonio Vivaldi Il Cimento dell’armonia e dell’inventione Opus 8 including ‘Le Quattro Stagioni’ (‘The Four Seasons’) THE AVISON ENSEMBLE Pavlo Beznosiuk director/violin THE AVISON ENSEMBLE PAVLO BEZNOSIUK HANDEL : J S BACH : SONATAS & CONCERTI GROSSI OPUS 6 PARTITAS FOR SOLO VIOLIN CKD 362 CKD 366 Discover the world of Linn Records Download at www.linnrecords.com Now you can explore Linn music on-line with even greater ease by using our innovative download facility. Linn albums and tracks are available to download at Studio Master and CD quality – the quality you desire to achieve the best possible sound. MP3 downloads are also available. linnrecords.com is a multi-format music delivery system that delivers music on vinyl, CD and download. Register online today at www.linnrecords.com to keep up to date about our latest releases and to find out more about our artists. LINN, GLASGOW ROAD, WATERFOOT, GLASGOW G76 0EQ UK t: +44 (0)141 303 5027 f: +44 (0)141 303 5007 e: [email protected] DISC 1 DISC 2 THE FOUR SEASONS Violin Concerto in D minor, Op.8, No.7, RV.242 Violin Concerto in E Major, Op.8, No.1, RV.269, ‘La Primavera’ (Spring) q Allegro (3.11) w Largo (1.47) e Allegro (3.04) q Allegro (3.29) w Largo (2.39) e Allegro (4.04) Violin Concerto in G minor, Op.8, No.8, RV.332 Violin Concerto in G minor, Op.8, No.2, RV.315, ‘L’Estate’ (Summer) r Allegro (3.30) t Largo (2.06) y Allegro (4.01) r Allegro non molto (5.14) t Adagio (2.11) y Presto (2.49) Violin Concerto in D minor, Op.8, No.9, RV.236 Violin Concerto in F Major, Op.8, No.3, RV.293, ‘L’Autunno’ (Autumn) u Allegro (3.09) i Largo (1.59) o Allegro (2.49) u Allegro (4.53) i Adagio molto (2.05) o Allegro (3.10) Violin Concerto in B flat Major,Op.8, No.10, RV.362, ‘La Caccia’ Violin Concerto in F minor, Op.8, No.4, RV.297, ‘L’Inverno’ (Winter) a Allegro (3.37) s Adagio (2.11) d Allegro (2.36) a Allegro non molto (3.27) s Largo (1.42) d Allegro (3.05) Violin Concerto in D Major, Op.8, No.11, RV.210 f Allegro (4.51) g Largo (2.24) h Allegro (5.03) Violin Concerto in E flat Major, Op.8, No.5, RV.253, ‘La Tempesta di Mare’ Violin Concerto in C Major, Op.8, No.12, RV.178 f Presto (3.00) g Largo (2.08) h Presto (3.56) j Allegro (3.13) k Largo (2.08) l Allegro (3.44) Violin Concerto in C Major, Op.8, No.6, RV.180, ‘Il Piacere’ TOTAL TIME : 56.16 j Allegro (3.24) k Largo e cantabile (2.34) l Allegro (3.11) Recorded at St George’s Chesterton, Cambridge, UK from 29th November to 5th December 2009 Produced and engineered by Philip Hobbs TOTAL TIME : 57.54 Executive producer Gordon Dixon Post-production by Julia Thomas, Finesplice, UK Cover image: The Frozen Lagoon (oil on canvas) by Battaglioli, Francesco (1725-96) Design by John Haxby (school of) Ca’ Rezzonico, Museo del Settecento, Venice / Alinari / Photographs of The Avison Ensemble and Pavlo Beznosiuk by Joanne Green The Bridgeman Art Library Nationality Sonnet translations by Simon D. I. Fleming page 3 page 2 Despite his youthful musical promise, Vivaldi was directed towards the priesthood. Such a move was not without precedent, particularly for those of humble birth, as this career path would have offered a hope of social mobility and Antonio Vivaldi provided some financial security. However, Vivaldi was less than dedicated to his Il Cimento dell’armonia e dell’inventione priestly duties and, soon after his ordination in 1703, he turned his back on the priesthood in favour of a career in music. In the same year that Vivaldi became Twelve Concertos for Violin, Strings and Continuo Opus 8 a priest, he entered the employ of the Ospedale della Pietà (Devout Hospital of Mercy), a refuge for orphaned, illegitimate, destitute, or abandoned girls. Many of them would receive some musical training and Vivaldi, as their Maestro di Violino, oday the name Antonio Vivaldi is synonymous with Italian Baroque Music. would have provided this education. A select group of these girls were used to His most famous work, Le Quattro Stagioni (The Four Seasons), contains supply music for services at the Pietà, important social occasions in the calendar Tsome of the most instantly recognisable music ever composed and is of the Venetian nobility and an attraction for foreign visitors. The English traveller, today viewed as a pinnacle of musical art. Nevertheless, for almost two centuries Edward Wright, attended one of these performances; he recorded that the girls this work and others by Vivaldi were entirely forgotten, and it was not until the performed behind iron grills which obscured them from view. twentieth century that his dramatic rehabilitation secured him a place, alongside Handel and J. S. Bach, as one of the most influential and inventive composers Part of Vivaldi’s duties at the Pietà involved the composition of new music for the from the first half of the eighteenth century. girls to perform, and many of Vivaldi’s concertos were written for their use. Even in later years when his travels prevented him teaching at the Pietà, he continued Vivaldi had an inauspicious background. He was born on 4 March 1678, the first to compose concertos for them. From 1713 he was given the opportunity, by the of at least nine children produced by Giovanni Battista and Camilla. He was governors of the Pietà, to compose sacred vocal music and his success led to baptised at home on the day of his birth in fear that he might die abruptly. The his promotion to the post of Maestro di Concerti in 1716. The best known of his sickliness that resulted in his swift baptism may have been the first sign of the ill church music from this period is the magnificentGloria (RV. 589) from c1715. health, probably asthma, which plagued Vivaldi for the rest of his life. His father, Vivaldi was also a respected composer of operas and several were performed who had begun his career as a barber was, by the time of Vivaldi’s birth, working during his extended trips to Mantua and Rome. Furthermore, he made trips to as a professional musician. In 1685 Giovanni was admitted to the orchestra of Prague, Amsterdam, and Vienna; in the latter place he died in abject poverty in St Mark’s Basilica. Although it was not Venice’s cathedral, the close proximity 1741 and was buried in a pauper’s grave. of the Basilica to the Doge’s Palace, coupled with its location on the principal square, facilitated its development into a central venue for the production of In his lifetime Vivaldi was more highly esteemed as a violinist than as a composer ceremonial sacred music. The young Antonio, who was trained in music by his of music. Nevertheless, he was prolific and wrote around five-hundred concertos father, may have acted as his deputy at St Mark’s; his earliest recorded public for a variety of forces. Most were written for a solo violin with orchestra, but a appearance, as a ‘supernumerary’ violinist, was at the Basilica at Christmas 1696. substantial number were composed for soloists on instruments as diverse as the page 5 page 4 cello, mandolin, recorder, and bassoon; a significant number of other concertos Such was the popularity of Vivaldi in France that, in 1739, a Paris edition of the were written for two or more soloists. Vivaldi boasted, rather fancifully, that he Opus 8 appeared. Even in Italy, a country where Vivaldi’s fame rested more on his could compose a concerto faster than a copyist could write one out. His first ability as a performer, the Four Seasons were performed long after his death and published works, the Opus 1 trio sonatas from c1705, are in deference to those by in 1761 they were, according to Carlo Goldoni, Vivaldi’s chief claim to fame. In Arcangelo Corelli. They were followed by a set of twelve violin sonatas four years Britain these works appear to have been less popular and were never published in later. By this time Vivaldi was actively composing concertos which circulated in London, even though John Walsh reissued other opi by Vivaldi. Nevertheless, the manuscript; his first published concertos, the Opus 3 L’estro armonico (Harmonic fifth concerto from the Opus 8 is known to have received a London performance inspiration), appeared in 1711. This set was one of the most influential musical in 1724, presumably from a manuscript copy brought from Italy. John Hawkins, publications of the first half of the eighteenth century and they were particularly the British musicologist, knew these concertos; in 1776 he wrote that the ‘Opera popular in Germany where J. S. Bach transcribed several for keyboard. Other VIII is the most applauded of Vivaldi’s works.’ A copy of the Opus 8 also appears sonatas and concertos appeared in print over the subsequent years, but the best to have found its way to Newcastle upon Tyne where Charles Avison, in his known of these are the twelve Opus 8 concertos, first published at Amsterdam in Essay on Musical Expression (1752), criticised the way the Four Seasons imitated the 1725. Vivaldi gave them the title of Il cimento dell’armonica e dell’inventione (The trial sound of nature, chiefly the barking of a dog.