Antonio Vivaldi: Orlando Finto Pazzo; Juditha Triumphans; Tito Manlio; La Verita In Cimento; Orlando Furioso; Atenaide; Farnace (for the first time in the Vivaldi Edition); L'Olimpiade; Griselda
The Vivaldi Edition is a passion, and one which breathes a new wave of optimism and enthusiasm into record production worldwide. The greatest recording venture of the 21st century:
The Vivaldi Edition, a recording venture conceived by the musicologist Alberto Basso and the independent label Naïve, is one of the most promising and ambitious recording projects of the twenty-first century. Its first objective is to record the major part of the massive collection of Vivaldi manuscripts housed in the Biblioteca Nazionale in Turin, some 450 works. For each recording a meticulous musicological study of the manuscripts is undertaken, while a judicious choice of musicians ensures interpretations of the highest quality. The Vivaldi Edition is a passion, and one which breathes a new wave of optimism and enthusiasm into record production worldwide. The history of the manuscripts:
Irrefutable evidence proves that in 1745 twenty-seven volumes of the "Red Priest"'s music were in the library of the Venetian senator, Count Jacopo Soranzo in Venice. It is probable that he had purchased them from Francesco Vivaldi, brother of the composer, barber and wig-maker in Venice, who had the legal right to print and to sell the works.
Upon the death of Count Soranzo the twenty-seven volumes of Vivaldi's music passed into the hands of Count Giacomo Durazzo who kept them in his palace on the Grand Canal until his death. His nephew, Gerolamo, last doge of Genoa, had them transported to Genoa where they remained intact in the family villa for a century. In 1893, the volume were bequeathed and equally divided between the brothers Marcello and Flavio Durazzo. When Marcello died he left his share to the Salesian College of San Carlo near Casale Monferrato.
In 1926 the college rector, wishing to undertake renovation work on the building, decided to sell the volumes. He contacted the director of the National Library in Turin, who realized the immense value of this collection. When the city declined to but it he asked a friend, Roberto Foà, a rich banker, who purchased the volumes for the library in memory of his son. The other half was still in Genoa, and it was only after long negotiations that the last heirs of the noble family agreed to sell so that the volumes could once again be united. This time (1930), the money was provided by a wool merchant, Filippo Giordano.
So it came about through this tangled succession of chance events, that the manuscript library of Antonio Vivaldi found its home in the Biblioteca Nazionale of Turin where it is know as the "Maura Foà - Renzo Giordina collection". In that same city resides the eminent musicologist, Alberto Basso, president of the Istituto per I Beni Musicali in Piemonte and the originator of the vision of this extraordinary project. Backed by the donations of the Regione Piemonte, the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmino di Torino and the Compagnia di San Paolo, this undertaking, a collaboration between the istituto and Naïve, has now taken root and set off a veritable Vivaldi revolution...
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Price: $359.98