Here is yet another increment in the Venetian Soloists' complete recording of all the Vivaldi concerti published in his lifetime. I noted the complete (imported) collection in its album on a New York dealer's shelves recently. One would need a truck to get it home. I've never heard of coffee-table albums, but this one would be perfect for a display of conspicuous consumption--or good taste, if you prefer.
Opus 6 (or VI as the original version had it) seems to be a stepchild among the published sets. As a rule of thumb, those with funny titles--La Stravaganza, La Cetra, Il Gabinetto--get recorded with some frequency; those without don't. It was published around 1716 by Estienne Roger of Amsterdam, whose firm was responsible for all of the Vivaldi concerti that were published. (The Low Countries were probably the printing-center of Europe in that era.) The concerti of Op. 6 are specified as Concerti a Cinque, or concerti for five instrumental voices, rather than as concerti grossi, as here. Generally in such concerti the first violin of the ensemble also took the soloist's role. The concerto grosso proper grew out of the trio sonata ( two melody instruments and continuo) and was, in effect, a dialogue between the "trio" or concertino and the orchestra or ripieno. In effect, the concerto grosso marked the going-public of instrumental music, which, in response to growing demand moved from the intimacy of affluent private salons to what amounted to the concert-stage. The name seems to have originated around 1700, and the first work to which it was attached may have been Corelli's Op. 6; certainly, with Handel's Op. 6, it is the one known to most people.
In the present instance, there appears to be a discrepancy which will perhaps be explained by the liner notes, which I have not got. A concerto a cinque was, virtually by definition, a chamber work for four instruments and continuo. A concerto grosso (big concerto) soon came to mean any concerto of orchestral proportions. There is nothing to prevent the ripieno parts being doubled or quadrupled in the performance of a concerto a cinque. Possibly, having done just this, Signor Scimone decided that a switch in generic name would explain or excuse his procedure. In any case, there is little or no harm done, since acoustical law demands that each part be increased by ten to double the sound.
There is another significant difference to be noted between the Corellian concerto grosso and the Vivaldian solo concerto. Whereas the one evolved from an instrumental tradition, the other evolved from a vocal tradition. Monteverdi came to Venice in 1613 and thirty-four years later the first public opera house opened there. By the end of the century the opera was to entertainment in Venice what the movie was to entertainment in New York in 1940. In the extended vocal solos (not yet "arias") of Orfeo, his very first opera, Monteverdi had laid out the basic plan of the solo concerto: the stanzas of song were set off from one another by orchestral passages called ritornelli (little returns), involving thematic material, either from the vocal line or from an orchestral prelude to it. In the long solo in which he pleads with Charon to take him over the Styx, Orpheus demonstrates the power and scope of his vocal prowess. So with the solo concerto: the violin, with its extended range and lyricism, outdid the voice in gymnastics and pathos; the orchestra supplied the ritornelli, as in the opera.
