The Vivaldi begins

Don't get me wrong, the Bach Suites are a love and I will no doubt play them for the rest of my life, but I needed a little break from JS. He can be a tad unrelenting, if you know what I mean.

So onto some Vivaldi.

I know this era pretty well. As a flautist of the pretty-good-but-didn't-go-to-music-college variety, you ended up playing either lots of Telemann or lots of Debussy, depending on your inclinations or teacher. Early twentieth-century French flute music is not my deal as a general rule (Debussy's Syrinx an exception of course), so I ended up with Telemann. And boy were we good friends by the time university claimed all my time.

So I approached Vivaldi with some friendliness, and sure enough, the patterns are ones I know and love. The phrases, the echoes, the repeats. I get this stuff.

I'm working on Sonata No.5 RV.40. Entire movements are in tenor clef which is stretching my turkey-fugged brain cells, in a good way.