Concerto for recorder, string orchestra and basso continuo C major, RV 443
While the transverse flute had already reached a flourishing stage in France during the 17th century, compositions written explicitly for the instrument were, according to the music historian Charles Burney, still “very rare” in Italy as late as 1773. Antonio Vivaldi, a trained violinist by background, was the first Italian composer to consciously exploit the technical possibilities of the transverse flute. He may have become familiar with the instrument—at least indirectly—through Johann Joachim Quantz, who visited Rome in 1724 and Venice in 1726. Although there is no record of a personal encounter between the two, Quantz appears to have influenced developments at the Ospedale della Pietà, the Venetian girls’ orphanage where Vivaldi was active, with interruptions, from 1703 to 1740. Around the late 1720s, Ignazio Siber, previously referred to as maestro di oboè, was appointed as flute teacher there as well.
Nevertheless, scholars remain divided on whether Vivaldi intended the recorder in his chamber concertos featuring a flute—many of which date back to around 1720—or whether he might have been acquainted with the transverse flute even earlier, possibly through the influence of French opera. Surveying Vivaldi’s flute concertos presents challenges beyond instrumentation. These arise less from the fact that he composed for all three types of flutes in use at the time—thirteen concertos for transverse flute, two for alto recorder, and three for the so-called flautino—and more from the fact that many of these works survive in various versions. Almost all of the six concertos published in 1729 under the title VI Concerti a Flauto Traverso are reworkings of earlier violin concertos. In addition, more than thirty concertos are known in which the flute is part of a multi-soloist setting.
The instrument Vivaldi referred to as flautino was likely a sopranino recorder, with a range extending from the second to the middle of the fourth octave. The opening movement of the Concerto in C major, RV 443, immediately unfolds a dialogue of imitative phrases between the soloist and the second violin. The slow movement stands out for its unusual tone color: in the key of E minor, the F-flautino is difficult to play, which results in a muted, almost introspective character that contrasts distinctly with the brilliant outer movements.
The final movement serves as a model of ritornello form—one whose structural framework remained influential well into the 19th and 20th centuries. The tutti ritornello, played by the ensemble, acts as a formal anchor: thematically fixed and harmonically bound, it may be transposed but not modulated away from the home key. In contrast, Vivaldi uses the solo episodes to introduce new thematic material and modulate to distant tonal regions—a contrast that enriches the concerto both formally and expressively.
