Whats the difference between a Vivaldi violin concerto and and Vivaldi violin concerto grosso?
There is no such thing as a ‘violin concerto grosso’. I think you are mixing-up two terms. A ‘concerto grosso’ sets-off several solo instruments in the string section (usually two violins and cello in Vivaldi) against the rest of the strings (the ‘ripieno’). The ‘concerto grosso’ form was more or less invented by Corelli in the second half of the 17th century and became very popular with composers such as Vivaldi, Handel, Geminiani, and Locatelli. Most of the time, they will follow the pattern I have described above. Locatelli added one or two violas as ‘solo’ instruments in his ‘concerti grossi’. A Vivaldi violin concerto will feature only one solo instrument (in this, case, the violin) against the rest of the orchestra. Occasionally (as in ‘Spring’ from ‘The Four Seasons’) another violin might have a prominent part from time to time, but it will always be subservient to the principal soloist. All this having been said, Vivaldi was very fond of writing concertos for multiple instrumen
