Vivaldi's three concertos are the prize of this disc. He always excels at slow movements and the slow movements of these concertos are some of his best The three Vivaldi concertos here recorded were all written for other instruments entirely (violin, lute, mandolines), The guitar is an instrument of demonstrable antiquity, although it's use in the concert-hall is relatively recent, with an increase in popularity due in part to the performances of players like Andres Segovia, using a more resonant form of the instrument, and in part to less worthy associations. The Venetian composer Antonio Vivaldi, priest and violinist, impresario and teacher, spent most of his working life in his native city, employed intermittently at the Ospedale della Pieta, an institution for the education of orphan, illegitimate or impoverished girls which enjoyed a high musical reputation. Vivaldi wrote nothing for the guitar, but the music he wrote for lute and for mandoline has been appropriated by guitarists for whom it provides a valuable and apt addition to repertoire. The A major Guitar Concerto, RV 82, is in origin a Trio for violin and lute, and this, with the Concerto in D major for lute and two violins, RV 93, is inscribed with the name of Count Johann Joseph von Wrtby, a high official in Bohemia, where he served as royal governor and hereditary treasurer. It is thought that Vivaldi may have met the Count in Prague in 1730, when he was absent from Venice. The G major Double Concerto, RV 532, designed for two mandolines, is splendidly effective in it's two guitar version.
