ANTONIO VIVALDI Cello concertos (vol.1) Ensemble Explorations, Roel Dieltiens

Antonio Vivaldi was the very first composer to devote a large number of works to the cello as a solo instrument. Were his 27 concertos destined for “his” orphan girls of the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice, or for virtuosi like Vandini? One thing is certain: they demand performers of extraordinary talent at a period when the cello had not yet acquired its final size or number of strings. Whether they are accompanied by an orchestra of fifteen or by a smaller ensemble (as on this recording), these works demonstrate that the “Red Priest” lost none of his genius or his creative inventiveness when he temporarily forsook the world of the violin!