Cello sonatas (Vivaldi)

History#

When Vivaldi worked in Venice, the cello sonata became a popular genre. Benedetto Marcello had composed six cello sonatas in a similar style shortly before Vivaldi. Eleanor Selfridge-Field writes: “the impetus for Vivaldi to write these works at such a late age may have come from the general popularity of the cello sonatas of the 1730s, or perhaps from the specific example of Marcello, who wrote two collections of cello sonatas published in that decade”. titled VI Sonates Violoncello Solo col Basso. They appeared without an opus number, but are sometimes improperly called Op. 14. The print obviously happened without the composer’s permission; music for cello was in increasing demand in Paris at the time, and Vivaldi’s name popular. The three sonatas RV 39, 44 and 42, were published by Amadeus Verlag in Winterthur in 1975, edited by Walter Kolneder who assumed that it was their first publication.

Music#

The sonatas are all in four movements, typical for late Baroque sonatas. The tempos follow a pattern of slow-fast-slow-fast consistently.

Published in Paris, 1740#

• Sonata No. 1 in B major, RV 47 ()
• Sonata No. 2 in F major, RV 41 ()
• Sonata No. 3 in A minor, RV 43 ()
• Sonata No. 4 in B major, RV 45 ()
• Sonata No. 5 in E minor, RV 40 ()
• Sonata No. 6 in B major, RV 46 ()

Other cello sonatas#

• Sonata No. 7 in A minor, RV 44 ()
• Sonata No. 8 in E major, RV 39 ()
• Sonata No. 9 in G minor, RV 42 ()
• Sonata in D minor, RV 38 (lost)

Recordings#

The nine extant cello sonatas were recorded in 1993 by David Watkin as the soloist and a continuo group of cellist Helen Gough, David Miller (playing theorbo or archlute or guitar), and Robert King on harpsichord or organ.