Marcello, A :: Concerto in D Minor

'Originally for oboe, strings and basso continuo, Schott's edition is edited and arranged by Hugo Ruf. This intermediate level concerto also contains a cello part as well as a fully realized piano (or harpsichord) continuo part.

'If you think you ve never heard of Marcello, much less heard a note of his music, you may be surprised. This concerto is one of the best known works of the Baroque era, in large part because Bach transcribed it for solo harpsichord. Ironically, Bach believed it to be by Vivaldi, the Italian composer he admired most. Bach grouped his Marcello transcription with a group he labeled XVI Concerto nach A. Vivaldi . A century after his death, a German researcher reviewed Bach s manuscripts and assumed that Bach s identification of the music as Vivaldi s was correct. An English researcher discovered yet another copy of the Marcello concerto in the British Library. This one, part of Jeanne Roger s collection published in Amsterdam about 1717, clearly identifies Alessandro Marcello as the composer. After more than two centuries of misattribution, the concerto s correct authorship was established. Even then, the confusion did not abate, for copies of the concerto exist in both C minor and D minor. We hear it here in the original key of D minor. Because this concerto is so popular, its music is familiar. Marcello was indebted to Vivaldi and particularly to Tommaso Albinoni, who wrote extensively for oboe and orchestra. That stated, his achievement is no less remarkable. Relatively few of Marcello s compositions have survived: eighteen cantatas, nine other concerti, and a dozen sonatas for violin and continuo. The transparent elegance of this Oboe Concerto prompts interest in discovering more by this little known master.'

- Laurie Schulman, 2013