Founded in 1336, the Pietà was unique in being both single-sex and accepting infant girls born both in and out of wedlock, provided the child was small enough to fit in a box near the door. Aside from his forty-six operas, most of his five hundred-plus concertos, ninety solo sonatas, and dozens of choral works resulted from his thirty-year association as teacher, conductor, and composer for the orphans in the Ospedale della Pietà, one of four such institutions with prominent musical establishments in Venice. The vast majority of Antonio Vivaldi’s prolific compositions resulted from his various responsibilities in his long teaching career.
Moreover, the second and fifth movements have descriptive titles, respectively “Fantasmi” (“Ghosts”) and “Il Sonno” (“Sleep”). “La notte” is unique among the Opus 10 concertos: in fact, it is the only one in a minor key, and the only one to have six movements, while all others just have three. These jewels of his Opus 10 have been ever since amongst the composer's best-known works, and rightly so: the engaging chirping of the Goldfinch (“Il Gardellino”), the turbulent Storm at sea (“La tempesta di mare”), and most of all the unforgettable ghosts and nightmares of Night (“La notte”) are eloquent proof of his unequalled ability to conjure up an atmosphere in just a few bars. In 1728, when the publisher Le Cène ordered six concertos for transverse flute, Vivaldi went to no great trouble to supply them: he merely transcribed several existing recorder concertos.
By Antonio Vivaldi, arranged for solo Flute
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