Concerto for 2 Violins No. 8 in A Minor

Vivaldi’s L’estro armonico (The Harmonic Inspiration) was the Italian composer’s first collection of string concertos—12 works that would help refine the model for this popular genre, influencing J.S. Bach, Handel and others. Likely composed for Vivaldi’s pupils at Venice’s famous orphanage and music school, Ospedale della Pietà, the concertos vary from one to four solo violin parts. The Concerto for Two Violins in A Minor (one of several from the collection later transcribed for keyboard by Bach) is a typically vivacious example. Supported by strings and harpsichord, two soloists plunge straight into the action in the opening “Allegro”, the sober minor key tempered by dashing runs of semiquavers. The central “Larghetto” offers a moment of pause—an operatic duet without words—before the music climaxes in the mercurial final movement, full of rhetorical flourishes and contrasting episodes.