The concerto in the Baroque period (roughly 1600-1750)

Baroque composers who wrote concertos include Vivaldi (who wrote over 500, around half of them for violin), Bach and Handel.

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi

There were two types of Baroque concerto - the concerto grosso and the solo concerto.

The concerto grosso:

• is written for a group of solo instruments (the concertino) plus a larger ensemble (the ripieno)
• Bach’s six Brandenburg Concertos are well-known examples of the Baroque concerto grosso.

Listen to the opening of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4. The solo group of violin and two flutes are prominent at the beginning and are then joined by the ripieno strings. Listen for the harpsichord playing the continuo.

The Baroque solo concerto::

• is written for one solo instrument plus orchestra
• often has brilliant and technically demanding passages for the soloist to play
• Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is a well-known example of the Baroque solo violin concerto

Listen to this extract from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

Notice the contrast between solo violin and ripieno passages.