John Walsh

The core of this article is a plea for the recognition of the violin concerto in F major RV Anh. 131, first admitted to the Vivaldi catalogue in 2007, as an authentic work of the composer – a change of status that, if accepted, would result in its move from the Anhang (Supplement) section of the catalogue into the main part and also make it eligible for publication in the critical edition. The concerto is of special interest for having the appearance of an early work already displaying many of the features expressed in their classic form in L’estro armonico (1711).
It appears as the third of six concertos for various instrumental combinations contained in Harmonia Mundi, the Second Collection, an anthology brought out in late 1728 or early 1729 by John Walsh senior and Joseph Hare in London. To set the scene, the article begins by discussing Vivaldi’s significant presence in published concerto anthologies in general. Concerto III in Walsh’s print names Albinoni as the composer, but this is clearly wrong, since its style is palpably non-Albinonian. By good fortune, a thematic catalogue of the concertos once possessed by the Piarist monastery at Podolínec in eastern Slovakia lists the same concerto, this time attributed to Vivaldi. Although this catalogue is full of evident misattributions, it seemed a good idea to score the work up and test the credibility of its attribution.
Close analysis of both the structure and the musical style of the concerto quickly leads to a positive conclusion. Each aspect of the work exhibits not only a multitude of features highly characteristic of Vivaldi but also a good many that are seemingly unique, or nearly so, to him and have been widely recognized as such in scholarly literature. The article uses several tables and music examples to support its arguments.
Notwithstanding its brevity and a relative lack of technical challenge in the solo part, which could possibly reflect its use for pedagogical purposes at the Ospedale della Pietà, Concerto III can, in the author’s view, be attributed with absolute confidence to Vivaldi. Since the Harmonia Mundi anthology includes another work, the oboe concerto RV 456, that has had its attribution to Vivaldi in that source contested for a while in modern times before being ultimately vindicated, there is scope for future exploration of a possible link between the two compositions.

BY VIVALDI (AFTER ALL): THE VIOLIN CONCERTO RV ANH. 131

SUMMARY

The core of this article is a plea for the recognition of the violin concerto in F major RV Anh. 131, first admitted to the Vivaldi catalogue in 2007, as an authentic work of the composer – a change of status that, if accepted, would result in its move from the Anhang (Supplement) section of the catalogue into the main part and also make it eligible for publication in the critical edition. The concerto is of special interest for having the appearance of an early work already displaying many of the features expressed in their classic form in L’estro armonico (1711).
It appears as the third of six concertos for various instrumental combinations contained in Harmonia Mundi, the Second Collection, an anthology brought out in late 1728 or early 1729 by John Walsh senior and Joseph Hare in London. To set the scene, the article begins by discussing Vivaldi’s significant presence in published concerto anthologies in general. Concerto III in Walsh’s print names Albinoni as the composer, but this is clearly wrong, since its style is palpably non-Albinonian. By good fortune, a thematic catalogue of the concertos once possessed by the Piarist monastery at Podolínec in eastern Slovakia lists the same concerto, this time attributed to Vivaldi. Although this catalogue is full of evident misattributions, it seemed a good idea to score the work up and test the credibility of its attribution.
Close analysis of both the structure and the musical style of the concerto quickly leads to a positive conclusion. Each aspect of the work exhibits not only a multitude of features highly characteristic of Vivaldi but also a good many that are seemingly unique, or nearly so, to him and have been widely recognized as such in scholarly literature. The article uses several tables and music examples to support its arguments.
Notwithstanding its brevity and a relative lack of technical challenge in the solo part, which could possibly reflect its use for pedagogical purposes at the Ospedale della Pietà, Concerto III can, in the author’s view, be attributed with absolute confidence to Vivaldi. Since the Harmonia Mundi anthology includes another work, the oboe concerto RV 456, that has had its attribution to Vivaldi in that source contested for a while in modern times before being ultimately vindicated, there is scope for future exploration of a possible link between the two compositions.