The Crusades and the resulting development of trade with Asia and the Middle East led to the establishment of Venice as the greatest commercial centre for trade with the East and politically the strongest European power in the Mediterranean region. Situated on 120 islands formed by 177 canals in the lagoon between the mouths of the Po and Piave rivers at the northern extremity of the Adriatic Sea, Venice became known as the “Queen of the Adriatic” reflecting its historic role as a naval power and commercial centre. A Venetian all his life, travelling but always returning, Vivaldi epitomizes Italian Baroque Music like no other composer.īut first, let us look briefly at Vivaldi's home City-State. The bottom line is that the newcomer to Vivaldi can do much better than this.Antonio Vivaldi was a virtuoso violinist, a virtuoso composer – at least in terms of quantity – and a virtuoso teacher, as clearly evidenced by the level of competence attained by his pupils.

Things improve over the rest of the second disc (there are various ensembles involved, playing on recordings drawn from catalogs now under the control of the Berlin Classics label), but not a lot of effort has been expended on remastering, and artistically and sonically the set feels like a grab bag. That's actually the newest in the set the Violin Concerto in A minor, RV 356, that opens disc two was recorded way back in 1972 and was a fine specimen of the absolutely expressionless way of playing Vivaldi that held the stage in those days.

That distinction would be reserved for the bizarre, jittery readings of the entire Four Seasons set, by violinist Thomas Zehetmair leading the Camerata Bern, that takes up most of the first disc. A vocal work or three might have been in order. The Four Seasons violin concertos certainly qualify, but almost all the rest of the pieces are concertos as well, with hundreds of rivals of equal quality. Whether or not the works on this double-disc set are Vivaldi's greatest is open to dispute.

Vivaldi most famous works