Steven Schwartz writes:

>Bob Draper:
>
>>It does raise the question: How do the list members who love Bach yet
>>criticise Vivaldi justify their stance?
>
>I love both Vivaldi and Bach.  However, I do view them as very different
>composers - composers with distinct personalities - and therefore have no
>trouble imagining someone liking one and hating the other.  At their most
>characteristic, I find the distinction to come close to Coleridge's
>discussion of wit, fancy, and imagination.  Vivaldi to me is a composer of
>wit and fancy, Bach a composer of imaginaton.  Both are splendidly
>inventive, but Vivaldi's invention is one of the surface.  He wrote highly
>finished works, full of wonderful surprises, but the surprise is the
>surprise of a moment.  Bach's surprises have you thinking about them for a
>long time afterward,  ...

I am glad you feel like this about Vivaldi because it shows I am not alone.
There are some wondeful emotional moments in his music for me.

These are moments of joy, sadness and humour.  They come mainly from the
themes used, but also from surprises.

When you mention religion re Bach you forget that Vivaldi was himself
a priest.  I too I am not a Christian but I do find some of the most
enjoyable music in Vivaldi's ouvre to be in his religious output.  The
two Glorias are examples.

My only regret about Viv (as Nigel Kennedy calls him) is that the movements
are so short.  There are some beautiful stressful bits in some of his oboe
concertos but just as one's mind starts to feel it in comes the finale to
end the moment.

Bob Draper
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