Antonio Vivaldi. Violin sonatas, RV 815 and RV 816

By Antonio Vivaldi

The violin sonatas RV 815 and RV 816 came to light only recently. They are found in a manuscript volume compiled in England around 1725 that once belonged to the collector Gerald Coke and is today preserved in the Foundling Museum, London. The sonatas are presented as keyboard music, but their rigorously two-part texture and some technical aspects identify the music as for violin and bass. They are relatively early compositions probably composed for an unknown amateur violinist. The three-movement C major sonata (RV 815) has some interesting structural features, while the four-movement D major sonata (RV 816) is most remarkable for its fantasia-like opening movement, composed entirely over a tonic pedal note.