Precious Baroque

Featuring

Enrico Casazza
Pieter-Jan Belder
Magnifica Comunità Ensemble
Musica Amphion
Antonio Vivaldi
Johann Sebastian Bach

Did you know?

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Composer's Artistic Vision

For Vivaldi's 'The Four Seasons', each concerto is linked with a seasonal sonnet, possibly written by the composer himself, to make the music easier to understand.

Composer Biography

Antonio Vivaldi, known as 'Il prete rosso' (the red priest) due to his hair color, taught violin and conducted the orchestra at the Ospedale della Pietà, an orphanage for girls.

Compositional Technique

Bach's Concerto No. 6 in B flat major is unique for not including violins, instead featuring two violas, two violas da gamba, cello, violone (an early double-bass), and basso continuo.

Composer Biography

Antonio Vivaldi, one of the most important composers of the Italian Baroque, was born in Venice on March 4, 1678.

Composition History

The name 'Brandenburg Concertos' for Johann Sebastian Bach's 'Six Concerts avec plusieurs instruments' was given by musicologist Philipp Spitta in his 1873 Bach biography.

Compositional Technique

Bach's Concerto No. 5 in D major features the first solo keyboard cadenza in music history, where the harpsichord becomes independent from the ensemble.

Composition History

Vivaldi's 'Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione' (The Contest Between Harmony and Invention), which includes 'The Four Seasons', was published as Opus 8 in Amsterdam from 1725.