Antonio Vivaldi Concerto no. 40 in Do minore

per Fagotto , Archi e Cembalo / Thiorba.

RV 978 (1761)

Composed by Robert Rønnes

(Updated 6th December 2006)

From the rehearsal with

Moscow Culture Ministeriums Orchestra

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The following recording is taken from a video recording from 1995.

The quality of these restored recordings are not up to full audio quality.

1. Allegro

2. Fantasia attacca 3. Rondeau

I have always been fascinated by the composer Antonio Vivaldi.

After performing many of his bassoon- concertos, my thoughts was:

How would Vivaldi have composed his music if he had lived twenty years more? How would his music have sounded like?

If he had traveled to J.S.Bach in Germany and listened to his Brandenburger Concerto no.3

and got to know more about the Rococo style in Germany (Braun,Goepfert),

would he then have use some of these elements in his music?

May be he would have extended the solo bassoon register to high C,

as Michael Haydn and Leopold Mozart did in their trumpet concertos in the slow movements.

Vivaldi´s continuo sound would always have sounded Italian,

but maybe he would have changed the Thiorba with the Arc-lute in the slow movement,

for having a wider range of the soloistically continuo sound.

If Vivaldi visited France and Rameau- maybe he would have been fascinated by the rythm of the French Rondeau,

but maybe here he would have added his own expression to it.

He could also have added a solo violin obligato as Bach did in his Brandenburger Concerto no 4, 3rd movement.

I am refering to the passages from my Rondeau from bar 33-

where the solo violin is "flying" over the other instruments in the same matter as it does in Brandenburger Concerto no 4.

Vivaldi has always used a lot of expressive dissonances,

maybe these would have been even more extended towards the later Galant style

or the as same dissonance use as the early Mozart?

This Bassoon Concerto is by other words a "Science Fiction- Vivaldi Concerto".

The year 1761 and the Ryom catalouge number is taken out of my fantasy.

I have written my suggestion how a Bassoon Concerto no. 40 by Vivaldi could have sounded if he lived for 20 more years.

This Concerto had its world premiere at the IDRS festival in Minnesota 1993 with Per Hannevold as Bassoon soloist.

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For better hearing the clarity in this composition I have added a mp midi recording here:

Vivaldi Bassoon Concerto no 40 1 movement

Vivaldi Bassoon Concerto no 40 2 movement

Vivaldi Bassoon Concerto no 40 3 movement

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Thanks a lot to my teacher for doing this concert together with me!



Valeri Popov and Robert Ronnes

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