If there is a single dull movement to be found among these captivating works then I have yet to find it. Like his bassoon concertos, Vivaldi’s concertos for cello are rewarding not only for their highly imaginative solo writing, which both stretches and explores the instrument’s versatile character, but also for the richly varied ideas contained in their ritornellos.

Soloist Roel Dieltiens has already issued the first disc in his current exploration of these rewarding pieces now he follows it up with seven further concertos, two of them calling for partnership with violin. Vivaldi catered generously for the cello with 27 concertos for the instrument, another for two cellos and nine sonatas with continuo. PERFORMER: Christine Busch (violin), Richte Van der Meer (cello) Ensemble Explorations/Roel Dieltiens (cello) A year later he left the Pietà for a period of three years spent in Mantua as Maestro di Cappella da Camera to Prince Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt, the German nobleman appointed by the Emperor in Vienna to govern the city.WORKS: Cello Concertos, RV 407, 408, 411, 420 & 421 Concerto for Violin & Cello, RV 544 Concerto for Violin & Two Cellos, RV 561 In 1716 he was again removed, to be given, a month later, the title Maestro de' Concerti, director of instrumental music. In 1709 he briefly left the Pietà, to be reinstated in 1711. The position was subject to annual renewal by the board of governors, whose voting was not invariably in Vivaldi's favour, particularly as his reputation and consequent obligations outside the orphanage increased. In 1703, the year of his ordination, Vivaldi, known as il prete rosso, the red priest, from the inherited colour of his hair, was appointed violin-master of the pupils of the Pietà. Venice attracted, then as now, many foreign tourists, and the Pietà and its music long remained a centre of cultural pilgrimage. For much of his life Vivaldi was intermittently associated with the Ospedale della Pietà, one of the four famous foundations in Venice for the education of orphan, illegitimate or indigent girls, a select group of whom were trained as musicians.

Vivaldi cello concerto for two cellos