A formerly lost flute concerto by the 18th century Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi, has been reconstituted by a researcher and will debuted yesterday at Scotland’s Perth Concert Hall.
The Il Gran Mogol (The Great Mughal), a missing concerto by the composer, was unearthed in Scotland by Andrew Woolley. They were found in the papers of the Marquesses of Lothian, held at the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh.
The whole piece was performed by the British early music ensemble La Serenissima. Hopefully, either the group or the venue will release an accessible online recording of the performance in its entirety.
The second violin part was incomplete and was finished by Woolley, a research fellow at Southampton University in the U.K., using the manuscript of another Vivaldi flute concerto, which appears to be a variant of Il Gran Mogol.
The other concertos in the “national concertos” quartet to which this piece belongs, La Francia, La Spagna and L’Inghilterro, remain missing. Il Gran Mogol refers to India’s Mughal empire.
Vivaldi’s pieces have turned upbefore, so the idea they rest of the quartet’s concertos may eventually be found is not completely out of the question.
The reconstructed score will also be on display at a nearby library.
