having trouble concentrating on the composition. He finds himself
shocked and distracted again and again by the poor quality of the
print work; you would never dare submit work in such a state
nowadays in Amsterdam. He leafs on calmly through one composer
after another. Hmm, he’s heard that name Vivaldi before; he
vaguely recalls having seen something earlier from the same
composer. But it can’t have made much of an impression on him,
otherwise it would be in his catalogue by now. Smiling at the
pompous dedication to Frederik IV, he thumbs on through sheets
of sonate. They don’t look too bad; even at a casual reading Estienne
finds his interest awakened. And he’s in luck, because tomorrow
there’s to be a performance of Vivaldi in the church just around the
corner, the Chiesa dell’ Angelo Raffaele. It seems to the publisher that
it might just be worth his while to take this opportunity of hearing
Vivaldi playing live.
The Raffaele is pretty full and Estienne has to work his way forward
through the crowds. If only he had come on time.
The publisher had no way of knowing that Vivaldi had
played here before and in the meantime built up quite a following.
Embarrassed, Estienne allows the first half of the service to wash
over him. If they knew back home that he had attended a Catholic
Mass! As the first half of the service comes to an end and Vivaldi
comes forward to play, it becomes instantly evident to Estienne
how he has earned the nickname of Il Prete Rosso. The priest with
the mass of red curls needs no further introduction. As Antonio
begins energetically to play, Estienne Roger at once recognises one
of the sonate from Opus II. Rather Corelli-like, he thinks… and yet,
not quite. There follows a new concerto, and this time it is most
definitely different! Estienne leans forward to listen more closely to
the cellos. Wow! This is something! When at the end of his recital
Don Vivaldi announces this concerto to be part of his Opus III,
Estienne has obvious difficulty in controlling himself. Could
Vivaldi be already committed to giving this new work to a local
publisher?
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