A long-awaited book came this weekend ... H.C. Robbins Landon's Vivaldi: Voice of the Baroque. As the author of definitive biographies of Beethoven, Haydn, Handel, and Mozart, Landon was a master in the field of musicology. My first contact with him was with 1791: Mozart's Last Year, in which he set the record straight following mystification of Mozart in Amadeus.
The cultural context of the composers' work is expertly described and the intimacy that Landon enables in both books is what appeals to me. He draws extensively from letters, which paint a very human picture of these geniuses.
A great interview with Landon can be found here.
Vivaldi, Violin Concerto in D Major "Grosso Mogul" RV 208. Viktoria Mullova, fiddle, with Il Giardino Armonico.
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