The opening movement of the F major Concerto grosso is emotionally wide-ranging, from the ceremonial to a melting dip into the minor. The Concerto grosso closes with a dancing Allegro. Shadows are banished in the faster-moving sixth movement, which reveals itself to be a brief but perfectly formed fugue. A gently sighing Largo brings us into a minor key, with Corelli showing his genius for creating music from the simplest of building blocks. The third has a stately gait, while the fourth enjoys irrepressibly high spirits, though underneath the energy we can still detect the courtly gait of the previous movement. The brief opening movement of the first concerto sets off with all due solemnity before a bustling second one that alternates busyness with dramatic silences. (A concerto grosso is a work that features a group of instrumentalists who function as soloists.) The sheer quality of his composing shows through wonderfully in the 12 Concerti grossi, Op 6, of which we’ll hear the first two pieces. His influence is out of all proportion to the small number of works left to posterity. He was an outstanding violinist and made major developments in the genres of the concerto and the sonata. He made his mark in Rome, however, where he’d moved by 1675. This in turn gives way to a more optimistic theme, underpinned by lilting rhythms that end the sinfonia in a mood of good humour.Īrcangelo Corelli was a generation older than Grimani and details of his earlier life are somewhat vague. It ranges from a bustlingly upbeat opening section, strings supported by busy harpsichord continuo, to a slower-moving section full of sighing phrases and juicily biting harmonies. Maria Grimani’s gifts, though, are self-evident even from the short sinfonia (overture) that opens Pallade e Marte. Strikingly she was first-ever woman to have an opera produced there: Pallade e Marte was unveiled at the Vienna court theatre in celebration of the emperor’s saint’s day on 4 November 1713.
She appears to have been born into a noble Venetian family and what we do know is that she spent periods of time in Vienna, where she was active during the reign of Charles VI and was one of the last of a series of female oratorio composers at the imperial court.
The life of the Italian composer Maria Grimani is so wreathed in mystery that we don’t even know for certain when she died. Today we get to experience arguably the best-known set of violin concertos ever written – The Four Seasons – alongside a composer whose music has almost entirely vanished from sight.
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