So for a complete change in style, I thought I'd talk about a baroque piece tonight. Anton Steck was the first person (perhaps only) to make a CD recording of this piece, I couldn't find another recording of this work online.
Vivaldi's Violin Concerto in B-flat Major (RV 368) seems to spell out a summer's day to me. The first movement is very lively, and features a very technically challenging, high energy violin part, that seems to soar in a blue sky on a sunny day, while the orchestra frolics on the green grass below. The second movement is sort of like a lazy late afternoon under sweltering heat, and a time for relaxation. The third movement is in the evening when the social life really begins. It has some of the liveliness of the first movement again and you can hear a bit of call and answer from the soloist and the orchestra.
This concerto was the most technically difficult piece of music Vivaldi ever wrote for violin, and possibly one of the most difficult pieces for violin written within the eighteenth century. Naturally, no violinist could resist posting this! :)
This is a recording of Anton Steck featured on violin with a small chamber ensemble, Modo Antiquo, conducted by Federico Maria Sardelli. This concerto is only short, all three movements only add up to about nine minutes.
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