ANTONIO VIVALDI
La Viola da gamba in Concerto

Reference: AV9835

• Jordi Savall
• Le Concert des Nations

Vivaldi and the viol are two concepts that until very recently have rarely been brought into conjunction. Did we not know from the testimonies of André Maugars in 1639 and Thomas Hill in 1657 that the viol, still thriving north of the Alps, had already become an all-but-extinct instrument in Italy – replaced by the bass violin, which, when built in a slightly smaller size, with covered strings and altered tuning, would in a few decades become the cello? And was not Vivaldi an ultra-progressive composer who would have turned up his nose at such a relic of the past?

Vivaldi and the viol are two concepts that until very recently have rarely been brought into conjunction. Did we not know from the testimonies of André Maugars in 1639 and Thomas Hill in 1657 that the viol, still thriving north of the Alps, had already become an all-but-extinct instrument in Italy – replaced by the bass violin, which, when built in a slightly smaller size, with covered strings and altered tuning, would in a few decades become the cello? And was not Vivaldi an ultra-progressive composer who would have turned up his nose at such a relic of the past?

And yet: among Vivaldi’s hundreds of surviving compositions (over 800 at the latest count) are five that include parts for an instrument called by the composer “viola inglese”, “viola all’inglese” or (in one case) “violoncello all’inglese”. This “English viol” or “English-style viol” is clearly not a member of the violin family played in a special manner – five-note and six-note chords in one of the works concerned put paid to that idea – but if not, then what?

+ information in the CD booklet

MICHAEL TALBOT

(1) Original French text of the quotation from Marc Pincherle:
“On a lieu d’admettre que Vivaldi entend par “violes à l’anglaise”, cet ensemble de violes ordinaires de formats différents, soprano, alto, ténor, basse, constituant une famille instrumentale homogène et complète, que les britanniques affectionnaient.”

(2) Original Italian text of the quotation from Vincenzo Coronelli:
“… che con la stessa franchezza canta il soprano, suona il violino e il violoncello inglese.”