# Vivaldi Bassoon concertos



## Tero (Jun 2, 2012)

There are several concertos with bassoon and oboe and others with more instruments. The ones with just bassoon and strings are listed here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Antonio_Vivaldi

My favorite since an LP got in high school has been RV 483. It also showed me what you can do with strings if you are Vivaldi.

Recordings, even sets, rarely have the two incomplete ones. The recorded catalog tends to be 31 concertos.

Tamas Bencoks recorded 31 for Naxos on 5 discs. He is missing 478 and 479. Sergio Azzolini recorded 4 discs for Naive. He is missing 478. 479 and 466 plus 467, as well as 487, 497. He filled in with two more on Naive on an oboe and bassoon disc.

Daniel Smith on Decca as well as other labels (they are all the same) recorded the missing 478 and 479.

I don't usually play more than one disc at a time, but I am more likely to play these than many of the string concerto opuses.

The period instruments ensembles usually take a few of them too fast, so I play my favorite 483 on a Philips disc by Thunemann or a pro arte disc, hard to find, with Marriner conducting, John Miller bassoon.


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## Tero (Jun 2, 2012)

Not a big fan of I Musici, but Thunemann is a great player, on modern bassoon
it starts at some spot, slide to the start for all 55 min


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Tero said:


> The period instruments ensembles usually take a few of them too fast, so I play my favorite 483 on a Philips disc by Thunemann or a pro arte disc, hard to find, with Marriner conducting, John Miller bassoon.


As a semi-retired professional bassoonist, this thread is of course, interesting to me - the excellent Vivaldi bassoon concerti are such a basic component of the bassoon solo repertoire....
I've performed quite a number of them - they are great fun - they sound great, and they lay nicely for the instrument.

I have both the Miller and Thunemann discs, which are very good - so is the Tamas Benkocz effort for Naxos....

It's too bad that some of the vinyl discs never made it to CD or digital version - 
Maurice Allard's splendid 5 concerto vinyl disc was a real prize - wonderful playing...same with Virginio Bianchi's long ago 4-concerto version for Vox [vinyl] - that was my first Bassoon solo record, way back when I first started...

For digital era - Miller is terrific, if you can find it, Thuneman is very good....Benkocz definitely worthwhile on Naxos...
forget Danny Smith, he just isn't a very good player, he somehow talked the Denon recording people into recording the complete set...I applaud the effort to provide complete concerti, but quality-wise, it just isn't up to the competition.


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## Tero (Jun 2, 2012)

Yeah, Smith does OK on the more famous concertos I already know. Since I only have the Naxos as a complete or nearly complete set, I usually go there to play a disc. It has several favorites that Thunemann never recorded. A couple of concertos I think I only have by Smith. Very inexpensive box now in cardboard sleeves.

I was in college at OSU in Ohio and at one point noticed that they had recitals during the day. I would go hear a clarinet player or a bassoonist. I was really not familiar with bassoon pieces outside of the baroque and the infamous Funeral March of A Marionette. LOL. But they were entertaining chamber pieces.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Tero said:


> I was in college at OSU in Ohio and at one point noticed that they had recitals during the day. I would go hear a clarinet player or a bassoonist. I was really not familiar with bassoon pieces outside of the baroque and the infamous Funeral March of A Marionette. LOL. But they were entertaining chamber pieces.


Was Chris Weait still teaching bassoon @ OSU when you were there?? Fine player - Phila Chamber Sym, Toronto SO for many years. I studied with him in high school, my first teacher.


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## Heliogabo (Dec 29, 2014)

Daniel Smith infuses a jazz feeling to some of the concertos. No probleme to my taste but that's not that Vivaldian I think...


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## Tero (Jun 2, 2012)

Heck148 said:


> Was Chris Weait still teaching bassoon @ OSU when you were there?? Fine player - Phila Chamber Sym, Toronto SO for many years. I studied with him in high school, my first teacher.


No idea! this was 1974. I only knew where the music school was as a singer had contacted me and asked my help to pronounce words in a Sibelius piece. I then noticed the noon concerts announcement. The pieces were always classical era.


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

As an amateur I concur with Heck148's assessment of the Smith set. Every bassoon player I know hates it.


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Any thoughts about the recordings by Sergio Azzolini? I love them, but they're the only ones I know.


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## Tero (Jun 2, 2012)

Heh, they are fine, but not if you look at my favorites. The other ones that are good concertos I am familiar with but not in my top 5. They play some of my favorites too fast. Sort of like Il Giardino Armonico in the chamber concertos.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

wkasimer said:


> Any thoughts about the recordings by Sergio Azzolini? I love them, but they're the only ones I know.


Have not heard Azzolini's Vivaldi recordings, but I have him performing other repertoire - very fine player. Is he playing modern instrument for his Vivaldi recordings??


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Heck148 said:


> Have not heard Azzolini's Vivaldi recordings, but I have him performing other repertoire - very fine player. Is he playing modern instrument for his Vivaldi recordings??


I'm pretty sure that he's playing on Baroque era instruments, or copies.


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## JSBach85 (Feb 18, 2017)

Heck148 said:


> Have not heard Azzolini's Vivaldi recordings, but I have him performing other repertoire - very fine player. Is he playing modern instrument for his Vivaldi recordings??


Azzolini conducts L'Aura Soave Cremona, one of the finest wind period instrument ensembles I've ever listened to.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

wkasimer said:


> I'm pretty sure that he's playing on Baroque era instruments, or copies.


oh, that's too bad....I don't really enjoy original instrument performances...they tend to highlight all the flaws you are taught to avoid on modern instruments.


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## Tero (Jun 2, 2012)

This one is pretty good, and started off with 8 concertos on one disc. I would definitely have bough volume 2 but it never appeared.
https://www.amazon.com/Vivaldi-Bass...qid=1516639958&sr=8-9&keywords=nadina+jackson
Nadina Jackson bassoon


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## Tero (Jun 2, 2012)

Vivaldi does not have monopoly on bassoon concertos. ordered this one by Azzolini, Graupner concertos


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## Tero (Jun 2, 2012)

Most of the booklets in the CDs are written by
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Talbot_(musicologist)

His most recent entries are from 2014. He now thinks none of the bassoon concertos went to the orphan school Pieta in Venice. Though no concerto copies remain in Morzin court in Bohemia, up to three bassoon players in the Montua court can be connected to the concertos. One, Frantisek Jiranek, was sent to study with Vivaldi in Venice in the 1720s.


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