Vivaldi became a best seller, notably for his ever-present The Four Seasons. By the 1970s, period style performances began to sprout, revitalizing the classical record industry. So, it’s hard to imagine that the bulk of Vivaldi’s work lay forgotten for nearly two centuries, when scholars and musicians began to turn their attention to him in the 1930s.
But close listening to his oeuvre reveals something else: a wellspring of dynamic shades and colors, nervous energy – and a talent for melody. The rap on Vivaldi, however, is that he composed one concerto 500 times, or, as some prefer, 500 concertos in the same mold. Give Vivaldi credit: He cranked out music at an amazing rate, including 230 violin concertos, more than 250 works for other instruments, about 50 operas and numerous sacred pieces. The bows fly in the air as inverted legs, always attracting and repelling each other, always in danger of clashing, always avoiding it by transforming hot passion into pure pattern.’’ĬONCERTO FOR FOUR VIOLINS in B MINOR, RV 580 Here’s how the composer describes Last Round: “Two quartets confront each other, separated by the bass, with violins and violas standing up as in the traditional tango orchestras. The first movement is full of violent compression, and the second is an elegy to the tango, with a bit of on-stage choreography thrown in for good measure. The title, according to the composer, refers to the imaginary chance that Piazzolla’s spirit will fight one more time, and the music depicts an idealized bandoneon – the keyless accordion that Piazzolla mastered as a child. With Last Round, written in 1996 for double string quartet and bass, Golijov returns to the roots of his homeland and his beloved Piazzolla. He also wrote the soundtrack to Francis Ford Coppola’s 2007 film Youth Without Youth. Mark Passion, composed in honor of the 250 th anniversary of Bach’s death. Today, Golijov’s music is a fusion of Yiddish klezmer, American folk, jazz and Spanish and Argentinian influences, but the composer attributes his inspiration to a constant swirl of “inner voices.’’ Golijov made a lasting impression by juxtaposing Latino street music and Gospel text in his St. Golijov moved to the United States in 1986 and studied with the maverick George Crumb, who helped “liberate’’ the young composer from working in any one style. It only takes a moment in listening to the music of Golijov to feel an unusual sonic presence, a talent the New York Times once called “classical music’s great globalist hope.’’ Born in Argentina to Eastern European parents, Golijov grew up with music in the home and was fascinated by the tangos of his elder countryman, Astor Piazzolla.
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