A special collaboration with Gotham Early Music Scene (GEMS) and Voices of Music: Vivaldi's "Emperor" Concerto in D Major, performed on original instruments. Augusta McKay Lodge, baroque violin.
Live, 8K video from our concert in NYC, October 6, 2022.
GEMS is a non-profit corporation that supports and promotes the artists and organizations in New York devoted to Early Music- the music of the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and early Classical periods. Visit them on the web at www.gemsny.org/
Voices of Music is filming in 8K! To support our work, visit us at www.voicesofmusic.org/
Vivaldi’s Concerto in D Major “Grosso Mogul” is one of only a handful of concertos to survive with the original cadenzas. These extended unaccompanied passages, presumably by Vivaldi, give a vivid impression of virtuoso violin playing in the baroque. Vivaldi’s ”display” concertos-and also Locatelli’s-often set the stage with a series of forceful scales establishing a clear tonality, followed by dramatic episodes by the soloist. As impressive as the outer movements are, from a compositional point of view the highlight is the plangent middle movement: a tonal wilderness of harmony underpinning an extended, highly melismatic violin solo.
Of the many Mughal emperors, the greatest was arguably Aurangzeb, who ruled until 1707, although the title could refer to a number of his successors. Known as the "Conqueror of the World," Aurangzeb expanded the Mughal empire to the edges of the Indian subcontinent. Niccolao Manucci, a Venetian traveler, brought back first hand stories of the Mughal court and enjoyed a moment of fame as a sort of Marco Polo character. His stories ("Storia do Mogor") may have circulated in manuscript before being pirated and published in France in 1715 by François Catrou. Musicologist Michael Talbot connects the theme of the Mogul to Domenico Lalli's libretto "Il gran Mogol" which received several performances in different versions around the time of Vivaldi's concerto. A lively and ingenious keyboard version of the concerto by Johann Sebastian Bach comes down to us arranged for organ (BWV 594).
Voices of Music
Hanneke van Proosdij & David Tayler, directors
Aniela Eddy, Kati Kyme, Isabelle Seula Lee, Augusta McKay Lodge and Shelby Yamin, baroque violin
Kyle Miller and Maureen Murchie, baroque viola
Ana Kim and William Skeen, baroque cello
Doug Balliett, baroque bass
Dongsok Shin, baroque organ
Hanneke van Proosdij, harpsichord
David Tayler, archlute
Producer: John Thiessen
Video director: Murat Eyuboglu
Audio Engineer: David Tayler
Harpsichord courtesy of Gwendolyn Toth, made by John Phillips, Berkeley, CA, 2014, after Johann Heinrich Gräbner Jr, 1739, preserved in the Kunstgewerbemuseum, Dresden, at Schloss Pillnitz. Chinoiserie by Janine Johnson.
Filmed in 8K with Sony A1 cameras and Sony lenses. Microphones by Sennheiser and Schoeps.
Live from the Church of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Manhattan.
The Rev’d Dr Andrew C. Blume, Rector
0:00 I. Allegro
5:11 II. Grave recitativo
7:42 III. Allegro
#vivaldi