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24 Introducing Vivaldi to America Opus 9 RevealsAnother Masterpiece-the Paris Premiere ofLa Cetra I mpatient to have Vivaldi's Opus 8 known "at home" on returning to Paris, I wrote to Walter Naumburg ofTown Hall's Music Committee relating the enthusiastic response to Vivaldi's music in Brussels, where we had discovered the manuscript, and in Paris. I inquired if the prestigious Town Hall Music Committee might be interested in an American Vivaldi festival concert. Since winning the Naumburg Award in 1927, I had remained in friendly contact with the Naumburgs and always invited them to my New York concerts, for they were truly interested in the careers oftheir prizewinners . My letter reached them at Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Hotel on 22 August 1949, and elicited an immediate reply. They were thrilled about my Vivaldi discoveries, but since their concert series had been discontinued they referred me to Thurston Davies, vice president ofTown Hall. We flew from Paris to New York in early December for a meeting with Town Hall's Music Committee. Davies and the members unanimously approved ofa Vivaldi Festival, comprising two concerts on 25 April and 9 May 1950. Thomas Scherman, conductor and board member, offered his services and those of the Little Orchestra without fee, and everyone else followed suit. I had hoped the concerts might include the entire Opus 8, but Scherman and others thought this work too long and, with Dr. Carleton Sprague Smith, he selected a more varied program, which proved very wise. 239 240 A Fiddler's Tale I was severely taken to task by a few American musicologists for my pilgrimage to Europe to find Opus 8, for they asserted I could have obtained a copy from the Music Division of the Library ofCongress! I had never thought of looking there, since Dario Soria had directed me to Maestro Malipiero and the Istituto Antonio Vivaldi in Venice! However, the grateful letters I had received from Malipiero proved my integrity to the committee. Annette and I set off for Washington, D.C., to visit the Library of Congress Music Division. There we met and became friends ofWilliam Lichtenwanger, who showed me their copy of Opus 8, which lacked all second violin parts of the tutti. Their edition had fascinating variations from the Brussels Vivaldi edition that I had photocopied, and included a handsome engraved portrait of Antonio Vivaldi as frontispiece, dated 1725, establishing the date ofLe Cene's publication. Someone had obviously removed that engraving from the Brussels Bibliotheque copy. This detail proved useful later, when I broadcast Concertos 5 through 8 ofIf Cimento dell'Armonia e dell'Invenzione for the BBC's Third Program with harpsichordist Boris Ord. Mter my London broadcast, an irate musicologist wrote to the BBe disputing the 1725 date, insisting that it could not possibly have appeared in print before I732! Annette and I deeply respect musical scholars, but some perpetrate errors by quoting sources they have never seen in the original. The Library of Congress copy also included a loose optional part for the principal violoncello, La Pioggia (The Rain), the second movement of the Winter concerto. A difficult running accompaniment to suggest rainfall, this version was lacking in the Brussels copy, so pizzicatos by violins and violas in the tutti accompaniment depicted raindrops. When I premiered Opus 8 in Rio de Janeiro in I952, I used this optional part for the first time, and was very pleased by the effect. The Music Division Library had another version of Vivaldi's Opus 8 in a later John Walsh English edition, where I noticed an error which all subsequent editions followed. When Vivaldi placed "T" over a note, he meant trillo. Walsh and later editors thought "T" indicated tenuto (hold). So the beginning of the Winter concerto was played as long sustained notes to represent all frozen and still-but should have been played as agitated trills, which Vivaldi indicated to represent shuddering with cold. Lichtenwanger was so very helpful, I thought this an opportune occasion to ask, "Do you have any other Vivaldi concertos?" Pleased by my interest, Lichtenwanger replied, "We do," and soon returned to hand me another Le Cene edition of twelve Vivaldi concertos, Opus 9, titled La Cetra (The Lyre). Since there was no score, I had to carefully scan all Introducing Vivaldi to America 241 individual parts of the twelve concertos before evaluating this work. It took most of the afternoon, but convinced of its outstanding interest, I ordered photostats...

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