Firma Melodiya presents a recording of instrumental concertos by Antonio Vivaldi.

The Italian composer went down in history as an outstanding master of baroque concerto. His legacy includes over 500 concertos (about half of them composed for violin), which combine composing and virtuosic mastership with a truly Italian temperament, strict orderliness of the whole with inexhaustible inspiration and ingenuity.

Vivaldi adopted a three-movement model of concerto, but even his most conventionally built works almost always conceal a surprise – an unusual structure of a movement, sudden modulation, a striking harmonic turn, and play of Forte and Piano shades. Just as was the case with Bach, Vivaldi had sunk into oblivion for almost two centuries, and only in the 20th century did his music came to the foreground of world culture.

Antonio Vivaldi’s concertos are performed by the prominent representatives of domestic music art: Oleg Kagan (violin), Natalia Gutman (cello), Evgeny Nepalo (oboe) and Albert Gofman (flute), and conducted by Rudolf Barshai and Lev Markiz, who opened the style of chamber performance of baroque music to the Soviet audience. The La Notte concerto features an ensemble of soloists of the Moscow Philharmonic Society led by David Oistrakh.

Contents:
- Concerto for oboe and sting orchestra in A minor, RV461
Evgeni Nepalo (oboe)
Moscow Chamber Orchestra / Rudolf Barshai

- Concerto for violin, cello and strings in A major, RV546
Oleg Kagan (violin), Natalia Gutman (cello)
Ensemble of soloists Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Moscow State Philharmony / Lev Markiz

- Concerto for violin, strings and cembalo in E minor, RV278
Oleg Kagan (violin)
Ensemble of soloists Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Moscow State Philharmony / Lev Markiz

- Concerto for cello, strings and cembalo in B minor, RV 424
- Concerto for violin, cello and strings in B flat major, RV547
Oleg Kagan (violin), Natalia Gutman (cello)
Ensemble of soloists Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Moscow State Philharmony / Lev Markiz

- Concerto for flute and orchestra in G minor Night (“La Notte”), Op.10 No.2, RV439
Albert Gofman (flute)
Ensemble of soloists of the Moscow State Philharmony / David Oistrakh