Riepel: Violin Concertos

This edition of Joseph Riepel’s violin concertos includes three published concertos (his only compositions to appear in print during his lifetime) as well as his only other extant complete violin concerto, which survives in manuscript. Riepel (1709–82) is mostly known today as the author of the Anfangsgründe zur musicalischen Setzkunst (Fundamentals of Musical Composition), which contains some of the most detailed eighteenth-century discussions of how to compose concertos. The three published concertos—scored for solo violin accompanied by strings and basso continuo—appeared in conjunction with that treatise, where Riepel mentions them in its first three chapters. In addition, he published the concertos with a two-page preface that continues to discuss issues from the first two chapters of his treatise. As a result, these three violin concertos, which constitute fine examples of mid-eighteenth-century courtly concertos, provide a practical demonstration of Riepel’s compositional instructions and should be considered an extension of his theoretical writings. The additional concerto is a virtuosic work scored for solo violin, strings, and winds, with many embellishments written out, and the manuscript for this concerto includes cadenzas for both the second and third movements.