»Concerti per molti strumenti«

For several years, Antonio Vivaldi was in charge of the orchestra of the Ospedale della Pietá in Venice, a state-financed orphanage for girls. The orphans were provided with a musical training there and were given the opportunity to learn a number of instruments. Among the wind instruments, the bassoon, horn and oboe were particularly popular in the Ospedale and Vivaldi therefore composed a series of solo concertos for these instruments, including the two concertos for violin, two oboes, two horns, bassoon, strings and continuo in F major, RV 569 and RV 574, which were probably given their first performance by the girls in the Ospedale.

Even during his time as organist, chamber musician and concert master in Weimar, Johann Sebastian Bach had already started to adapt the new Italian concerto form in his early preludes and fugues. In his Triple concerto for flute, violin, harpsichord and strings in A minor, BWV 1044, written in around 1716, he was finally able to implement this perfectly, as can be seen in the unusually colourful orchestration, which is characterised by the use of double stopping, pizzicato effects and subtly modulated energy.

In his richly creative life, Georg Philipp Telemann produced an extremely comprehensive body of work, in terms of both quality and quantity, in which he was able to merge influences from different cultures into his own unmistakeable personal style with apparent ease. He wrote his numerous compositions intended for flute instruments both for the transverse flute, which was popular primarily in France, and also for the recorder, and so it was and is possible to perform most of the works in this genre, including his Concerto for recorder, bassoon, strings and continuo in F major, TWV 52:F1, on both instruments.

The work of Johann Friedrich Fasch, one of the most significant German instrumental composers of the Baroque era, is characterised primarily by his strikingly rich deployment of wind instruments and a particularly refined use of motifs and themes. His tonal language, which was pioneering by the standards of the day, is demonstrated perfectly in his Concerto for two oboes, bassoon, strings and continuo in C minor, FaWV L:c2, in which the individual solo voices enter into a lively exchange with the strings and continuo.

Antonio Vivaldi Concert for violin, two oboes, two horns, bassoon, strings and basso continuo in F major, RV 569
Johann Sebastian Bach Concert for flute, violin, cembalo and strings in A minor, BWV 1044
Georg Philipp Telemann Concert for recorder, bassoon, strings and basso continuo in F major, TWV 52:F1
Johann Friedrich Fasch Concert for two oboes, bassoon, strings and basso continuo in C minor, FaWV L:c2
Antonio Vivaldi Concert for violin, two oboes, two horns, bassoon, strings and basso continuo in F major, RV 574