Concerto in A Minor, 3rd Movement, Vivaldi – Part 2
In my previous post about the 3rd movement of Vivaldi’s Concerto in A Minor, I ventured that it is more challenging than the 1st movement because of the quick tempo and the tricky arpeggio section on page 2. In this post we finish our climb to the top, examining the arpeggio section in detail – the key problems and the strategies for overcoming them.
But before we go there, I want to tell a little story behind the edition of this concerto in Suzuki’s Volume IV. Years ago, listening to the 3rd movement on Swiss Classic Radio, I was surprised to hear Itzhak Perlman play a completely different arpeggio section than the version I had studied. It sounded easier. A bit of research revealed that Suzuki and many teachers of his time used an arrangement by Hungarian violinist Tivadar Nachéz (1859-1930). Nachéz, who lived most of his life in London, was also a composer and arranger. He added a piano accompaniment to his edition of the concerto, perhaps the reason it became so widely accepted.
Predictably, there has been controversy since about which version is the correct one to study and play. Laurie Niles, founder of the excellent site violinist.com picks this up in her article on the piece here.