Europa Galante

Vivaldi Concerti Per Violino Vi 'la Boemia' Europa Galante

Thanks to paper analysis and in the light of recent Vivaldian studies, we can assign a sure provenance and precise temporal location to a part of Antonio Vivaldi's output that was composed during his stay in Bohemia in 1730-31. This 'corpus' comprises not only instrumental music but also vocal, and confirms the intensive relations between the composer and this part of Europe, which (even in the last few years of his life) always remained faithful to him and continued to esteem his works when, from around 1730, they became less 'fashionable' in other European centres. [...] In Prague Vivaldi was surrounded by a musical society that beset him with requests for operas (those staged in the theatre of Count Sporck) and with patrons and musicians keen to possess one of his manuscripts. In this respect, I think that the next few years will offer us new discoveries, coming from a library or archive collection still awaiting inventory, that will tell us more about the relations between the maestro and Prague society. -- excerpt from the inside notes