Viva Vivaldi

Camerata Øresund is the second of three Danish ensembles visiting the West Cork Chamber Music Festival this year. Their second programme focuses on Antonio Vivaldi as well as including a new commission for harpsichord and lute by Sam Perkin.

Vivaldi was the classic performer-composer. He himself was a staggeringly brilliant violinist so he wrote fiendishly difficult music to show off his virtuosity. The four concertos here are all from L’Estro Armonico, a collection of twelve concertos he published in Amsterdam (the Italian printers were too unreliable) in 1711. It is vintage Vivaldi: lively, exuberant and brilliant allegros, spun‐out cantilenas in bel canto style, and a general feel of Italian passion and good humour.

Way, way back when the Festival began, there was no reliable harpsichord that we could use for creating a Baroque strand in the Festival. So the festiv found a famous maker in UK, Michael Johnson by name, who had an instrument we could buy. And our good friends in Cork County Council with the help of the Arts Council stepped in and bought this lovely double manual harpsichord 25 years ago. We celebrate this milestone by commissioning the Cork composer Sam Perkin to write a work for harpsichord and lute.

Program:

Vivaldi: Concerto for four violins D major Op. 3 No. 7 RV 549
Vivaldi: Concerto for two violins G minor Op. 3 No. 2 RV 578
Sam Perkin ‘Childhood’s Awe’ for Archlute and Harpsichord WORLD PREMIERE
Vivaldi Concerto for two violins D minor Op. 3 No. 11 RV 565
Vivaldi Concerto for four violins F major Op. 3 No. 7 RV 567
Vivaldi Concerto for strings in G minor RV 157

Camerata Øresunds participation in West Cork Chamber Music Festival is supported by Art Music Denmark.