Dear Michael Fields, When I hear the second movement the world seems perfect ... Dead masters still reach us with their thoughts, they will be with us while other masters revive them. Thanks

0:00 - I - Allegro 4:10 - II - Largo 8:21 - III - Allegro

The instruments are an archlute, 2 baroque violins, baroque cello and continuo organ.

Brilliant - uplifting - delicate - perfect... thank you! After a traumatic day this recording calmed my soul and put me at ease. Bravo

excellent, excellent, excellent. some of the best stuff i've ever heard. never seen an instrument like that before, and i hope to see a lot more of it. thank you michael fields

Wonderful performance. Thank you for posting this fine video.

One of my favorite pieces! Thanks!!

Wow, that was truly amazing. A beautiful ancient echo. What a gift you've given to us with this video!

Thank you so much for sharing with us this very special version with the luth.

Such a beautiful performance, the Lute a delicate instrument ~ perfect, thank you.

You make magnificent music, Mr. Fields. Thank you.

I've just started lute lessons, for I've been in love with this instrument for years, and I find this video really inspiring. The beauty of the music is just breathtaking!

The man is a genius ... compulsive listening pleasure I was enthralled.

Very beatiful, thank you for uploading !

I love watching and listening to this beautiful lute music piece, and do so at least three times a week. Lynn from East Dean.

Amazing, thanks Michael Fields

Thank you. Just what I needed.

@bigbearpaws Thank you! I am honoured to be compared to John Williams in any way at all - even if unfavourably! But of course, his (and most guitarists') versions of this work are very different to mine and other lutenists. The original score is for only the lute and literally 4 other players - 2 violins, cello and keyboard continuo. It's a 'chamber' work, not a romantic concerto, which is what modern guitarists try to make it into by using a full string orchestra.

Beautiful!

Great performance! Great musicians! Absolutely!

Yes, indeed. It was the fact it came so late - just as I was ready to start the next movement, they decided they needed to clap! It's funny how different audiences have varying responses to classical works in several movements. I guess it's all authentic; we know Beethoven and Mozart had to 'encore' individual movements at times, as the audience gave so much applause!

A fantastic performance and the lute - what a gorgeous instrument.

Wonderful playing. My favorite Vivaldi piece.

Thank you also for the wonderful information on the finer points concerning archlute vs. theorbo, the distinctions were ever unclear to me until your posts.

Dude, this is seriously awesome. I absolutely loved the way you play.

Dear Michael Fields: It is an beautiful piece and beautifully played, thank you very much for sharing with us. Viva Vivaldi !

Sir, this performance is simply wonderful. I intend to play this on guitar and this recording inspires me so much! Thank you for posting this on KZfaq for all of us to listen!

This is excellent!!!

@magicminstrel Utterly intriguing sound. One of my favourite composition. The performance is perfect. Thank you for the information and the video.

Magnifique et sobre interprétation. Bravo

Without words .... beauty and music from the heart, thanks Bez slov....krása hudby a zo srdca,, vďaka

Lovely..it's bliss!

Oh right, wow. It's truly an amazing instrument. Thanks!

The lute, arch lute, and theorbo are drastically under appreciated as solo instruments. STANDING and MOVING expressively while playing this large instrument should help to remedy that. The audience needs to see the musician emotionally involved and reacting to the music. Thanks so much for this!

I'm glad you enjoy it, and have made a new discovery.

Superlativos. I so thank you!!! Muchas gracias.

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed this rendition. It was great fun playing! The archlute is tuned with progressively higher strings (G,c,f,a,d',g') while the theorbo has an unusual 're-entrant' tuning which means the top 2 strings are at a lower pitch than the 3rd sting - and is normally in A rather than G (A,d,g,b,e,a - ie the top 5 strings sound an ascending pentatonic scale played in this order: string 5,2,4,1,3). Make sense? There is more information somewhere down the list of comments :-)

Great video, thanks!

Thank you!

Archlutes are intrinsically lucky, I think. I live in Savannah, Ga. USA and sometimes sip espresso outside and play an archlute after Sellas. Once three very excited Italians ran up exclaiming, "That's a Sellas! THAT'S A SELLAS!!!" (They were part of the Venice Baroque Orchestra ) in town playing Vivaldi's . They comp't me tickets for that night. Cool, no? After that performance I vowed that 'no one should play that music but Italians' You've changed my mind FOREVER!!

Thank you so much ... today I am learning more about the Baroque Theorbo what a joy to discover your youtube..... Thank you for helping teach me today..... Thank you

Superbe, merci beaucoup

What a lovely instrument and played so sensitively! I know the piece well but this is such a gentle rendition. I've never seen a lute that shape before!

salam so loved sound touch my soul !!!

You should. I have a huge appreciation for classical. It's like the mother and womb of all music. I wanna play guitar like he plays lute.

beautiful :-)

What an amazing instrument and this amazing lute player, I am becoming addicted to the lute.

So relaxing...

Theorbo? Tiorba? Archlute? Whichever, it is an unusual, yet lovely instrument. Bravo, and thank you for your wonderful translation of a beautiful, timeless piece.

Starting from 4:20 when the Lute Solo starts.. this is the song that I chose when I was 8 years old that would play at my wedding. I just got married 11/18/18 and this started to play and I was in tears. This song was played in the movie 1979 with Diane Lane called A little Romance. Worth seeing.

Very good, i like this performance (:

hermoso. Gracias.

I'm with you on that. I'm delighted I have been able to help connect you and Vivaldi, across time and space.

Mr Fields, congratulations, you and your group, the acoustic is amazing and adds a lot, greetings from Patagonia Argentina Sr Fields felcitaciones, a usted y a su grupo, la acustica del lugar es muy buena. Saludos desde Patagonia Argentina

Vivace. Loving life.

@k3hw Thank you. Music can soothe our souls. I'm touched that you found this example healing.

That's the first lutenist I've seen standing while playing. I love baroque lute. Nice video.

@10stringGuitarist Thank you! The first course is actually a Pyramid nylon string (I think .525), but the rest of the trebles are Aquila nylgut strings. It's single strung throughout. I found that with the Vivaldi, I needed single strings on the first 3 or 4 courses, and going to singles all the way gave it a bit more power. As we don't have a clue which instrument this concerto was really intended for, I guess this solution is as 'authentic' as any. And it works for me!

Muito Obrigado, Thank's, from Brasil.

Joya total !!!!!!!!!

@jcritchie The long neck extension carries an octave of bass strings, each tuned to a different note of a diatonic scale. These just give a bit of reinforcement to the bass line, like having a bass guitar and normal guitar in the same instrument. Glad you enjoyed it!

Grazie!

It's a great interpretation, sweet music, I love it very much! What a strange instrument you played, it is strange but it's so much fascinating! I love guitars and their sisters :-) This concert of Vivaldi is beautiful. Thanx a lot.

¡Fantástico!

I'm so glad you enjoy it! I take that to be quite a compliment.

Wonderful playing really really enjoyed this piece. CGSNI.

Very sweet well made instrument. The inserts must have taken months each.. I am ever admiring this fine instrument and the person holding it is an inspiration to fellow musicians.

First movement - the kind of music that you would expect to hear in a computer game. Second movement - if Sesame Street hadn't co-opted it, it would be excellent background music. Third movement - probably the most underrated classical piece in the world.

That was a delightful performance by all. Heavy metal guitarists everywhere will be shamed by the size of that ax.

superb!

I agree with you . The luth version is very delicate indeed.

we are getting the CD. thanks

Sipping espresso while playing an archlute in Savannah, GA sounds pretty cool to me. No wonder the visiting Italians were excited to find you! Maybe I should play mine on the beach here in Eastbourne, UK, where I live? Thanks for your vote of approval for a Hawaiian/Californian/Englishman's rendering of Vivaldi.

Thank you! I'm glad you like Vivaldi's music, and my playing.

That is a cool lute. :)

@tenorsanyone Thank you for your appreciative comments! I agree completely about the effect it has to "be alive" while playing or singing early music. Too many performers just won't make the extra effort to memorise solos, and I think it really helps the audience when they do!

According to Wikipedia, this concerto was composed in 1730, however it feels very “modern”. Maybe that’s why it’s called “Classical Music”.

Oh bliss! Bliss and heaven! Oh, it [is] gorgeousness and gorgeousity made flesh! It [is] like a bird of rarest-spun heaven metal or like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship, gravity all nonsense now.

that's a BIG ASS LUTE!!!!

Wow! That's guy's guitar is badass! Beautiful music!

Very well played! Watch out for that chandelier though!

Have to say i quite like many of the ornaments in II Largo ... An exceptional interpretation.

@ColinBurnside I'm glad you like it. Thank you.

It's an "Archlute", single strung in the trebles. No one can say for certain which instrument Vivaldi had in mind for this concerto. This guess is as valid as any other, and I like playing it on this instrument!

@lrodrigomoreno Thanks! Glad you like it.

@chaosIsTheOnlyPower Thank you! Your comments are also much appreciated. It's nice to know that some people are interested in the details as well as the overall musical effect.

Great Vivaldi's 'original' world heritage song performance.

Yes, it's what's known in the trade as "baroque pitch" - a generic catch-all term for the fact that there used to be many different pitch standards before the 20th century. This is a semi-tone (half-step) lower than modern pitch, which is about right to VIvaldi's time.

A bit of both your suggestions. They were enthusiastic, as the piece is rather appealing even to people who haven't heard it before, and they liked our presentation. But the audience was also a fairly mixed one, with some people just coming out for a nice summer evening's music and not always appreciating the difference between classical and popular music traditions. I didn't mind - but it did throw my concentration and timing a bit, as it wasn't what I was expecting!

this was my music lesson

I have never seen a longer neck compared to its body on a stringed instrument, but wonderful playing!

In fact, we don't know what instrument Vivaldi had in mind for this. He only wrote a single-line melody, so any chordal additions are the creation of the player rather than the composer, and would have been the case in those days as well. Modern performers play it on everything from classical guitar to baroque mandolin, all adding a few notes here and there. I add a few bass notes (yes, those strings are used a few times) and chords, as well as the traditional improvisations on the repeats.

one serious lute!

@leontud I hope you enjoy it! There are some other fine concerti performances on it as well.

@bigbearpaws We also don't know exactly what type of lute Vivaldi intended this to be played upon. You'll hear other lutenists doing it on various types of lutes - some like mandolins, sounding an octave higher than my version. My guess is that is was actually for a type of Venetian lute we have yet to rediscover, so my archlute is as good a replacement as any. And it looks good on stage!

@5stringofFernandoSor The lute also develops as the music changes during its history, much like the guitar developed by going electric. The lute keeps getting bigger to be able to meet the changing styles of music, from polyphony to continuo playing, developing from a small 5-course instrument into the 14-course theorbo and archluth, more suited to the dramatic styles of music in later centuries.

@CJbouzouki The score is published by Ricordi. The ornamentation, of course, is my own! I'm glad you like it.

, j'aime j'aime 💓💓💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗

Thank you for the additional information. You have banished a bit of my ignorance and added to my store of knowledge. Now a question for you - Is applause between movements the rule in Finland, or was it either an audience who was just very enthusiastic, or one which was not accustomed to classical concerts? BTW I am familiar with this work in both mandolin and guitar versions, but never before with a lute, "arch" or otherwise. I enjoyed it thoroughly!

I've played this concerto on the mandolin. I've also played Mozart flute concertos. Man is it a totally different experience. I've always thought Vivaldi wrote this piece for the mandolin because of it's limitations, it seems like this piece would be somewhat boring to play on the lute considering (I can imagine) that the whole concerto can be played on one or two strings. Either way the performance here is excellent!