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Vivaldi

Baroque Different interpretations - same piece Vivaldi

Different Interpretations of the same piece

One of the most fascinating aspects of Classical music is how Soloists, Chamber groups and Orchestras interpret the musical scores of the Masters. The enormous discrepancies between versions is highlighted here. The first is used in my post, “The Bassoon, Vivaldi’s love of it and my funny dream”

I love this piece of music. It’s uplifting, soaring with a solar plexus punch!

Vivaldi’s Bassoon Concerto RV 498 – Allegro

Basoon concerto in A rv-498-allegro

 

Now listen to this! … by a supposedly well respected orchestra. To my ear all of the passion, guts and punch have been removed, creating a “Vivaldi elevator piece.” What’s the story? I’m sure a professional bassoonist or experienced conductor could read Vivaldi’s original score (if it still exists) and tell which of these two versions is closest to what he composed. I just can’t imagine it’s this one!

I’ll wait and  hope that one day someone with ‘the knowledge’ will visit my blog and comment!

bassoon-concerto-a-minor-rv-498-i-allegro


Baroque Bassoon Funny dream / Vivaldi bassoon Vivaldi

The Bassoon, Vivaldi’s love of it – and my funny dream

I recently discovered the haunting beauty of the Bassoon. My brother hit the nail on the head when he commented that it’s like a high-tech Didgeridoo! (Arguably the oldest musical instrument on earth, since the Australian Aboriginal culture is the oldest living culture)

That deep, rich tonal quality hits somewhere in the heart region. After “discovering” the Bassoon, I next found that Vivaldi had an inordinate love of the instrument; since he composed 37 or 39 Concertos for it (*some scholarly arguments about this; Google it – I can’t be bothered!)

I became obsessed with Vivaldi’s Bassoon Concertos. Surfed the net for all of my paid sources, and kept looking for anyplace where I could download them. One night when I’d spent hours and hours downloading and searching (finding about 28 out of the 37 or 39) I had a dream.

The dream lasted about 15 minutes in dream time and it involved two things.

1) Trying to decide which newspaper I would put this ad in.

2) Composing and re-writing the wording. I finally came up with this ad:

Attractive, interesting older man seeks to trade ALL of Vivaldi’s Bassoon Concertos for intimate (sexual and intellectual) companionship with beautiful young woman.

What a hoot! Here are just three movements that highlight the beauty of the Basoon and Vivaldi’s composing skills.

This first one might be my favourite

RV 498 – Allegro

Con In A RV 498- Allegro

 

RV 501 La Notte – Fantasmi

vivaldi bassoon concerto b-flat-major-rv-501la-notte-ii-i-fantasmi

 

RV 501 La Notte – 3rd movement

vivaldi-bassoon concerto in b flat major rv-501 la-notte sonno


Baroque Handel Torelli Trumpet Trumpet Synaesthesia Vivaldi

Trumpet Synaesthesia

Synaesthesia (with several different spellings – see this concise, fascinating article (http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/Synaesthesia) – is basically a condition where two different sensory elements get linked.

Here are three types:

Grapheme-colour: Grapheme-colour is the most common type. People with this type of synesthesia associate letters and numbers with distinct colours.

Lexical-gusatory: Lexical-gustatory is a rare type of synesthesia. People with this type of synesthesia experience different tastes with certain words they hear.

Musical-colour: People with musical-colour synesthesia see colour when listening to music.

So what’s the Trumpet to a synethist? Since I’m not a synethist – I’m just making this up!

The trumpet is a very chilled white wine and it’s either yellow or gold … and a tangy Indonesian food spice!!

Genuine Synethists please respond!

Vivaldi concerto in G minor for trumpet and organ – Largo

Vivaldi concerto in g minor for trumpet and organ / largo

 

Handel – Allemande

Handel allemande

 

Torelli – concerto in D major for trumpet and strings

torelli concerto in- -major for trumpet and strings movement-3