Sonates pour violoncelle et basse continue

The nine sonatas for cello and basso continuo by Antonio Vivaldi are among the most famous cello works of the Baroque era. Thanks to their moderate technical demands, the pieces are an integral part of music lessons as well as of private music-making. But even for the professional early music scene, they form a focus of the cello repertoire.

The new edition of the Wiener Urtext Edition serves the needs and demands of all three target groups alike, providing a reliable musical text which is no longer based on the unauthorized first Paris edition by Le Clerc & Boivin but on a copy from Naples revised by Vivaldi himself as well as on two other manuscripts associated with the composer from the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris and the music library of the Counts of Schönborn at Wiesentheid.

Apart from the solo part, the edition comprises a piano (harpsichord) score with realized basso continuo which should be very welcome to pupils and amateurs. An unrealized basso continuo part has been added for the professional continuo player in which the figures of the first Paris edition has been included. Even if they do not trace back to Vivaldi himself, they bear witness to the contemporary basso continuo practice and can serve as a ‘guide’ for the execution of Vivaldi’s unfigured bass part. More detailed information on the performance practice is provided in the notes on interpretation by Gerhart Darmstadt which are based on contemporary sources.