VIVALDI IN THE ESTE MUSIC COLLECTION

Transcription

1 VIVALDI IN THE ESTE MUSIC COLLECTION and E, which each appear only twice. The next column lists the diatonic pitches from D to C in a rising sequence: D, G and C four times each, the other pitches three times, if we allow for one mistake (G instead of B). The combination of these two columns produces sixths, fifths and sevenths and thus still makes some musical sense, in contrast to the following ones: After these two diatonic columns there follow a chromatic and an enharmonic one, the first one containing the twelve rising semitones from G to F sharp, each one written twice and using only the sharp sign (again with one mistake: D instead of D#); and the last column of the musical block contains the letters rising from G to F, each four times except for B and E, as in the first pitch column, but here alternating with flat and sharp signs. The rest of the table is a magic square, each row and corresponding column containing the same sequence of letters, each following row being shifted one letter to the left. In my attempt to find some kind of sense in the sequence, I can offer only the first six letters, which can be arranged to form the words DON ANTONIO : di 13

2 HERBERT SEIFERT Whether the last four letters, following the cross, could be the abbreviation GPQV for Gubernatio PopulusQue Venetiarum, i. e. government and people of Venice or governo e popolo veneziani, may be doubted, since this was not a commonly understood abbreviation in comparison with to SPQR. The manuscripts in the collection most valuable for Vivaldi research are of course those containing compositions not preserved elsewhere. These are RV 113: A concerto in C major for strings, according to the title also oboes, and organ (E.M. 148b). RV 175: A violin concerto in C major (E.M. 148a), with a violone part in the hand of Sanguinazzi, being a simplified version of the organ part. Vivaldi s authorship is doubted by Ryom on stylistic grounds. RV 382: A violin concerto in B flat major (E.M. 149/7 and, incomplete and with some differences, E. M. 156r; the first manuscript gives the name in abbreviated form as del Sige D. A. V., its violone part again written out by Sanguinazzi; the second manuscript is anonymous). RV 781: A concerto in D major for two oboes, strings and continuo (E.M. 148c), formerly catalogued as RV 563 on account of a mistaken instrumentation. Not unique are the following copies: RV 112: Sinfonia in C major for strings and harpsichord (E.M. 147), with a cello part copied by Sanguinazzi. Another manuscript of this composition is preserved in Dresden di 13

3 VIVALDI IN THE ESTE MUSIC COLLECTION RV 144/Anh. 70: Introdutione in G major for strings (E.M. 148g), the cello part being written out by Sanguinazzi. In another manuscript this work is attributed to Giuseppe Tartini and is consequently now presumed to be spurious. RV 275: A violin concerto in E minor (E.M. 148e), which survives also in two further manuscripts and in a collection printed in Amsterdam in RV 276: Another violin concerto in E minor (E.M. 148d), the only manuscript version of this composition, which was published in a collection by Estienne Roger in Amsterdam in 1714 with 11 measures cut in the final movement. RV 292: A violin concerto in F major (E.M. 149/4). The composer is given as S. Giuseppe Cheleri, but the only other source is a score in Dresden, copied by Pisendel and attributed by him to Vivaldi. RV 294a: The violin concerto in F major Il ritiro (E.M. 148f), printed in Amsterdam in 1720 as no. 4 of the second part of opus 7 and also by Walsh in London. There are also two scores and a set of parts in Dresden and another set in Lund. RV 519: A concerto for two violins in A major (E.M. 149/1), printed in Amsterdam in 1711 as no.5 of L estro armonico, Op. 3, also in London and Paris, and surviving in several manuscript copies: in the eighteenth century Vivaldi s most popular composition. 13 Here again Sanguinazzi has written a part for violone, in a manner not seen in any of the other sources of this concerto, by reducing the harpsichord part to its principal notes. RV 719: An anonymous instrumental work without title (E.M. 102b) has been identified by Federico Maria Sardelli as the sinfonia opening Vivaldi s opera L incoronazione di Dario 14 (Venice, Teatro S. Angelo, 1717). 12 RUDOLF RASCH, La famosa mano di Monsieur Roger: Antonio Vivaldi and his Dutch Publishers, Informazioni e studi vivaldiani, 17, 1996, pp : 121f. 13 PETER RYOM, cit., p MICHAEL TALBOT, Miscellany, Studi vivaldiani, 3, 2003, pp : di 13

4 HERBERT SEIFERT Of interest is the context in which three of the concertos were gathered in the collective manuscript with the call number E.M This contains 11 compositions in the following order: 1 Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto a quatro [Op. 3,5, RV 519] 2 [Giovanni] Bononcini: Concerto a 4 [= Sinfonia to Il trionfo di Camilla, 1697ff.] 3 [Giuseppe Torelli: Concerto Op. 8,7, 1709] 4 Giuseppe Cheleri [recte: Vivaldi: Concerto RV 292] 5 Giuseppe Meck: [Concerto] 6 S r. D. G. R.: Concerto 7 Sig r D. A[ntonio] V[ivaldi]: Concerto [RV 382] 8 [Giuseppe Matteo Alberti: Concerto Op. 1,1, 1713] 15 9 S r. G. B. P. R. [recte: Tomaso Albinoni: Concerto; Talbot Mi 12a] 10 [Giuseppe Matteo Alberti: Sonata con trombe, e VV.] 11 Girolamo Donini: [Concerto] The two prints represented by copies in this manuscript were published in 1709 and 1713; around that time Torelli (+1709) and Alberti were active in Bologna, Vivaldi and Albinoni in Venice, Bononcini in Vienna and Naples, Meck in Eichstätt and Donini (+1752) in Bonn. Moreover, we notice that three of the eleven works are by Vivaldi and two of them by his early epigone Alberti. The identification of the authors is not reliable there are misattributions, as in nos. 4 and 9, and, as I noticed when I inspected concerto no. 8, the music is full of uncorrected errors. The so-called Este music collection in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek did not come into possession of the Este family until the nineteenth century; apparently it was put together during the first three decades of the eighteenth century by several collectors in Venice and Padua and contains one print and 13 manuscripts with works which were or can be attributed to Vivaldi. 15 This concerto is attributed to Vivaldi in a collection in the Piarist monastery in Podolínec (Slovakia). Cf. LADISLAV KAČIC, Vivaldiana in der Sammlung italienischer Konzerte der Piaristen in Podolínec, Studi vivaldiani, 6, 2006, p. 29, Nr. 14: authore Vivaldi di 13

5 VIVALDI IN THE ESTE MUSIC COLLECTION Table 1. History of the Este collection di 13

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