Everyone who has studied Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto for 2 clarinets, 2 oboes, and strings RV 560 – including musicologists, editors, and performers – has made a serious error in interpreting the autograph manuscript.
RV 560, along with its “twin,” RV 559, is notable primarily for being one of the first compositions in music history to call for solo clarinets in the score. This detail is significant because the aforementioned error concerns precisely the parts written for the two clarinets. According to these scholars and musicians, after a pyrotechnic performance in the first movement, the clarinets inexplicably fall silent during the second, only to reappear more effervescent than ever in the third. At first glance, it is easy to see why they might think so: in the autograph manuscript, beneath the first two staves – reserved for the 1st and 2nd oboes, respectively – there are two additional staves (in the bass clef): one for Violini, e Violette (violins and violas) and another for Bassi (basses). This would suggest the following instrumentation: 1st oboe, 2nd oboe, violins and violas playing in unison to accompany the 1st oboe, and a cello, lute, and harpsichord accompanying the 2nd oboe. However – a fact that has gone entirely unnoticed until now – halfway through the sixth bar, when the two oboes begin to play together and the accompanying parts merge into a single line to save time (and, above all, ink), Vivaldi stops writing out the part on the third staff and instead adds the note: Con il 2° Cla: (with the 2nd clarinet).* This annotation suggests that the preceding entry – referring to violins and violas (as well as the basses on the fourth staff) – relates to a later adaptation of the concerto for an alternative ensemble that omits the two clarinets.** This results in an entirely different instrumentation: 1st oboe, 2nd oboe, 1st clarinet accompanying the 1st oboe, and 2nd clarinet accompanying the 2nd oboe – the very same instrumentation, as it happens, that is prescribed for the second movement of RV 559 – .***
This error completely distorts the second movement, as well as the overall structure of the concerto. It deprives the piece of a highly compelling feature: the inclusion, between the two fast movements, of a slow movement characterized by an evocative and rare sonic texture – one created by the four solo wind instruments – the likes of which had never been heard before.
* The complete autograph manuscript of RV 560 can be viewed on the website imslp.org.
** The autograph manuscript of Concerto RV 556 also contains numerous annotations useful for an alternative performance that omits the two clarinets originally specified.
*** This explains the presence, in the clarinet parts, of numerous Fs below the staff, a note that is impossible for the violin to reach.
Nico Bertelli – copyright 2026