The cello concerto in G major, RV415 is a curiosity. At the time when the standard catalogue of Vivaldi’s music was established by Peter Ryom, its genuineness went unquestioned. After all, it comes from the Wiesentheid collection, which contains several clearly authentic sonatas and concertos by the composer. However, its style is so uncharacteristic of the composer, beyond the most basic specifications, that questions have arisen. For example, the fugue in alla breve metre that forms the finale has no counterpart among Vivaldi’s cello concertos and is in structural terms very unlike the few fugues in his violin concertos. The description ‘Siciliana’ is not used by Vivaldi as a heading for concerto movements in a slow 12/8 metre. The most likely explanation for the possible misattribution is that the manuscript proper, entitled in its continuo part ‘Concerto per camera a violoncello solo con strumenti’ (note the absence of a named author), was placed in error within a folder that had previously held a lost Vivaldi concerto described there as ‘Concerto con violoncello obligato di Signore Vivaldi Ex G#’. A mix-up is made more likely by the fact that Wiesentheid folders usually reproduce the wording of the enclosed manuscript’s title very closely.
VIDEO: Musici di San Marco, on period instruments. Conducted by Alberto Lizzio.
