A. Vivaldi
Flute Concerto in G Minor
Op. 10, No. 2
La Notte (“The Night”)
for Flute and Strings
Antonio Vivaldi, violinist and composer, was born on March 4, 1678, in Venice, Italy and died on July 28,1741 in Vienna, Austria. He was nicknamed “the red priest” because of his red hair and the fact that he had been ordained as a priest at St. Mark’s Chapel in Venice in 1703 (because of poor health, he was excused from active service as a priest in 1704). Of the composers of the Baroque Period (1600-1750) in music, Vivaldi is most remembered for his concertos - he wrote over 500! Most of his concertos were for the violin (The Four Seasons are but 4 of more than 230) but he also wrote concertos for other instruments, such as: viola (6), cello (27), mandolin (2), trumpet, oboe (17), bassoon (37), piccolo (3) and, of course, the flute (16).
Although for almost 200 years after his death, Vivaldi’s music fell into virtual obscurity, his influence on the solo concerto was widespread. His use of three movements (fast, slow, fast) and ritornello form (a refrain, alternating with solo episodes) was copied and developed by his successors. Vivaldi only assigned opus numbers to his published works; in 1733, after opus 12, he stated that he wasn’t going to publish any further because it interfered with the sale of his manuscripts (from which he received more money). The Il Pastor Fido, Op. 13 (“The Faithful Shepherd”) sonatas are considered spurious, constructed from parts of works by Vivaldi, in addition to Joseph Meck (1690-1758) and Giuseppe M. Alberti (1685-1751); the Alberti Bass pattern, used by Vivaldi and other Baroque and Classical composers is named for Domenico Alberti (1710-1740, no relation to Giuseppe), who was the first composer to employ it.
Despite the fact that there are only 12 opus numbers, Vivaldi published more that 100 works, in that each opus contains multiple works, usually 12. Opus 10 is a collection of 6 flute concertos published in 1729-30 in Amsterdam - the first flute concertos ever published. In addition to Vivaldi’s assigned opus numbers, there are several methods of identifying or cataloguing his music. In conjunction with the Italian publisher Ricordi’s publishing of a complete edition of Vivaldi’s music in 1947, Antonio Fanna organized the works into volumes by instrumentation - the 6th volume (F. VI) contains the 16 flute concertos. A more complete list was published in 1974 by Peter Ryom: “Verzeichnis der Werke Antonio Vivaldis” (A Catalogue of the Works of Antonio Vivaldi) which assigns each piece an “RV” (for “Ryom Verzeichnis”) number. Many of the concertos were also given descriptive titles and/or nicknames:
Op. 10, No. 1 (F. VI, No. 12; RV 433) Concerto in F Major
La Tempesta Di Mare (“Storm At Sea”)
Op. 10, No. 2 (F. VI, No. 13; RV 439) Concerto in G Minor
La Notte (“The Night”)
Op. 10, No. 3 (F. VI, No. 14; RV 428) Concerto in D Major
Il Cardellino (“The Goldfinch”)
Op. 10, No. 4 (F. VI, No. 15; RV 435) Concerto in G Major
Op. 10, No. 5 (F. VI, No. 1; RV 434) Concerto in F Major
Con Sordino (“With Mute”)
Op. 10, No. 6 (F. VI, No. 16; RV 437) Concerto in G Major
With the possible exception of No. 4, all of the concertos of Opus 10 are based on earlier versions of concertos; all are for flute and strings. Although harpsichord would have undoubtedly been included in performance (realizing the figured bass part), its use has been kept to a minimum - only when necessary to help maintain harmony or rhythm. Unlike modern concertos, the flute usually plays in the tutti sections; to distinguish, cues (of tutti) are printed as smaller notes.
Concerto in G Minor (F. VI, No. 13; RV 439) originally existed as RV 104, a Chamber Concerto (a concerto for a small group of solos instruments without orchestra) for flute (or violin), two violins & bassoon.
Vivaldi also used the name La Notte (“The Night”) for one of his bassoon concertos (RV 501, in Bb major). In addition to the programmatic title La Notte (“The Night”), two of the movements also have descriptive titles: the 2nd movement - Fantasmi (“phantoms”) and the 5th movement - Il Sonno (“sleep”).
The 5th movement is actually constructed of two sections from the 2nd movement of Autumn from The Four Seasons (Op. 8, No. 3, RV 293; measures 1-17 and 31-39, transposed down a tone, from D minor to C minor); the 2nd movement of Autumn in The Four Seasons also depicts sleep (“sweet slumber”).
This concerto is unique in the Opus 10 concertos for several reasons:
- it is the only one in a Minor key;
- it has 6 movements, alternating Slow/Fast (all others are 3 movements - Fast/Slow/Fast);
- some movements have descriptive titles; and,
- it is the only concerto of the Opus 10 concertos which has a movement without a solo section (the 5th movement).
It is also probably the most difficult of the Opus 10 concertos because of the challenges of the 4th movement.
Solo Flute part - 9”X12” - 12 pages - $14.95
with CD - 6 smp files:
- 1st Movement (3/4, Largo, quarter = 22);
- 2nd/3rd Movement (4/4, Presto, quarter = 92; 4/4, Largo, quarter = 42);
- 4th Movement (3/4, Presto, quarter = 144);
- 5th Movement (3/4, Largo, quarter = 42);
- 6th Movement (4/4, Allegro, quarter = 104);
- Complete (All six movements)
Please note that this is NOT an AUDIO CD
and an active SmartMusic subscription is needed to play smp files
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