Concerti per la Pieta

Vivaldi’s music-historical importance is indisputable. With the exception of Telemann, no other composer until Mozart produced so much cham­ber music of such a superlative quality. Just like Ludwig van Beethoven, he was an inexhaustible source of inspiration for every composer who followed him. He provided models for instrumental music and he refined the idiom and the technical possibilities of virtually évery instru­ment for which he wrote. His concertos for recorder RV 441 and 445 are excellent illustrations of this. According to Vivaldi expert Michael Talbot, Vivaldi’s importance actually extends even further than this: one can consider hirn as a forerunner of musical romanticism, not only for the expressive power of his programme music, but also and primarily because he always considered direct expression more important than perfection in the details.