Vivaldi - Gavotta

[Leslie Sanford]

This is the Gavotta movement from Vivalid's Trio Sonata No. 2 in E minor.

Realized using Solo Violin 1 & 2, Solo Cello 1, and Harpsichord.

https://soundcloud.com/leslie-sanford/vivaldi-gavotta-from-trio-sonata-no-2-rv-67

[Jos Wylin]

Hi Leslie,

I'm always interested in baroque music, but somehow I must have missed your contribution. Of course it's a lovely little piece of high quality music, delivered by a very fine composer. Your rendition and mix are excellent, the sound of the instruments and the ensemble perfect. However I miss a little bit of the dancing character of a gavotta. You've treated the piece as concert music (maybe it was designed that way by Vivaldi), but it could have some more livelyness in both rhythm and punchy performance (choice of articulations).

Nicely done! Thanks for sharing,

Jos

[Leslie Sanford]

Hi Jos,

Thanks for your comments. I had been listening to older perfomances of the piece, e.g. I Musici, and while being older were actually more "modern" in interpretation (more intense vibrato, slower tempo, etc.). But I had also been listening to more "authentic" recordings as well.

So with my realization I was aiming for something inbetween those two types of performances. As a result, I think it kind of failed to capture the energy of either approach. That may be what you've noticed.

Also, I tried to realize certain phrases with a piano dynamic to add a bit of contrast, but I think that doesn't come across as well as it could have either.

[Jos Wylin]

Hi Leslie,

I like your performance as a concert piece. To add a little extra to make it a 'dance', you could start shortening a number of notes, accentuate a little more the bass, etc... But again, this is a matter of taste or preference. I've been playing 18th century dances with my chamber orchestra for more than 25 years. That may explain why I have different preferences. But there's absolutely nothing wrong with your interpretation. It's a very good one. In fact, the tempo has little to do with it, as long as it remains (in this case) a danceable gavotta. There is some margin. In fact present day baroque orchestras tend to play rather quickly (to please the modern audience?). In fact the original tempi can have been a lot less speedy...

I found an example of such a piece, live played with my orchestra in 1998. The second tune is the gavotte, here only played with woodwinds as the middle part of a dancing piece (ABA).

Air and Gavotte

All the best,

Jos