This album offers a selection of six of Vivaldi’s bassoon concertos, performed by Uruguayan bassoonist Gustavo Núñez, principal bassoonist with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and considered one of the best bassoonists of his generation.
It would be no exaggeration to name Antonio Vivaldi as the “pioneer of the bassoon concerto”. Not only did he write what is thought to be the first ever solo concerto for bassoon, but during his lifetime he also created the largest group of works ever written for the instrument until then: 39 solo concertos, all of excellent quality. It is most likely an indication of Vivaldi’s fondness of the bassoon. Unfortunately there are no historical sources to determine for whom Vivaldi wrote these concertos, but given their technical demands and the quality of the musical writing, one can assume they were written for an accomplished virtuoso; possibly for one of the members of the orchestra of the Ospedale della Pietà, a home for abandoned and orphaned children in Venice, where Vivaldi was violin teacher and music director for more than 30 years.