Vivaldi claimed authorship of 94 operas, of which some 48 have been identified by musicologists, although less than 20 scores presently exist in manuscript. Vivaldi's operas and choral compositions were completely neglected during the boom of the 50's, although he considered his vocal output as equal in importance to his instrumental concertos, perhaps even more so. Not surprisingly, a whole spate of recordings is at hand to celebrate his 300th birthday and they add much to our knowledge of his work, especially in the area of vocal music. This year, the 300th anniversary of his birth, Vivaldi appears to be settling into a better perspective - a composer of decided limitations no doubt, but an original figure and a fascinating product of his age. Robbins Landon took on the whole movement in an article called “A Pox on Manfredini.” somehow the motoric rhythms, diamond‐hard textures, clean‐lined melodies and the cool, slightly anonymous cast of the music seemed the perfect musical background for those crew‐cut Eisenhower years.Ī backlash was not long in coming -during the height of it all Stravinsky proclaimed Vivaldi “a dull fellow,” Luigi Dallapiccola shrugged him off as someone who wrote the same concerto 400 times, while the noted Haydn scholar H. College students crammed for exams with “The Four Seasons” grinding away on their hi‐fi sets the concerti erossi were required accompaniment for all cocktail parties chamber groups arose from nowhere to play concert after concert of music by Vivaldi and his contemporaries Albinoni, Manfredini, Geminiani and the others and of course recordings appeared by the dozens.
Virtually ignored for over two centuries after his death in 1741, Vivaldi suddenly became the most fashionable composer of the moment. It was about 25 years ago that the Vivaldi craze hit the classical music world.
0 kommentar(er)
