Fanfare A. Soler (1729–1783) [ORGAN]
Concerto in Am Vivaldi (1678-1741)/Bach (1685-1750) [ORGAN]
Antonio Soler was a Spanish composer whose works span the late Baroque and early Classical music eras. He is best known for his keyboard sonatas, an important contribution to the harpsichord, fortepiano and organ repertoire.
Soler was born in Catalonia, Spain. When he was six years old he entered the school at the Monastery of Montserrat where he studied music. At age 15 he was simultaneously appointed organist and subdeacon at the Cathedral of La Seu d’Urgell. Later in life he was chapel master in Lleida and at the Royal Court in El Escorial. He is also thought to have studied music with Domenico Scarlatti.
At the age of 23 Soler took holy orders and embarked on an extremely busy routine as a Hieronymite (a hermit monk) in Madrid with 20-hour workdays, in the course of which he produced more than 500 compositions. Among these were around 150 keyboard sonatas, many believed to have been written for his pupil, the Infante Don Gabriel, son of King Carlos III.
Soler died in the monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial age 54.
Meanwhile, the Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi had his set of 12 concertos for string ensemble titled L’estro Armonico, Opus 3 (Harmonic Inspiration) published in 1711. They made quite an impression on a 26 year old Bach, and his way of internalizing and learning from music he liked was to arrange it for something else — in this case organ. It is fascinating to set the two scores side by side — Vivaldi’s original and Bach’s arrangement, how Bach transforms Vivaldi’s strings into idiomatic organ music and yet faithful to Vivaldi’s original.