Vivaldi was a bold innovator of the concerto form. With over five hundred concerti penned he undoubtedly sought many different ways of adding variety to what could have been a very repetitive activity. The audiences for his concerti must have been well accustomed to the use of ritornello form in the first movement and therefore any variants or developments of this form would be easily noticed and surprising to the ear. In this particular movement Vivaldi varies the form quite dramatically adding an introduction and splitting the second and third ritornelli into what could almost be counted as four separate ritornelli. The end result is a movement that, whilst bearing many trademarks of a standard ritornello form, gives many surprises to the listener and is quite unpredictable. A bi-product of the divided ritornelli is that the first movement is also quite lengthy in duration. Vivaldi also uses chromaticism and dissonance alongside some interesting modulations to further vary the movement.
The opening measures of the first movement in this concerto act as a stately introduction to the work and firmly establish the key of F major from which the Vivaldi would soon depart to explore some rather striking chromaticism. The highest melodic line in the opening chords, played by the first violins and the soloist, form a short ascending scalic motif which is what much of the melodic material is based. The chords are preceded by a sixteenth note upbeat giving the short introduction a feel of French overture. The brief opening phrase is repeated once again but marked piano which creates an echo effect. This effect, which was derived from a popular poetic device of the time, is used throughout the movement. The echo effect at the end of a phrase prolongs the cadence and over the span of the entire movement it adds considerable length.
The first ritornello begins with a lyrical theme that incorporates an inverted form of the scalic motif and alternates between tonic and dominant harmony just as the introduction did. Measure 14 however, jumps out at the listener with a sudden shift to f minor. This juxtaposition isolates this new melodic idea in the minor key and Vivaldi uses this clear divide in the opening ritornello to later split the second ritornello into two, thereby extending the work and offering much room for harmonic exploration. The ritornello soon gets back on track and it finishes with an echo before cadencing.
The solo violin functions in a typical manner up until the second ritornello leading the harmony to the dominant key of C major. At this point Vivaldi breaks away from the die cast mold of ritornello form. At measure 47 the solo violin breaks away from the ritornello in rather dramatic style before the very noticeable minor motif has entered. In measure 53, 54 and 55 the solo violin plays beautifully dissonant accented appoggiatturas which mark the beginning of many chromatic indulgences by the composer. There are fifteen measures of chromatic exploration played by the solo violin before the listener is given the second half of the ritornello which has now found its way to the submediant of F major, or if you prefer, the relative minor of the dominant key C major, A minor. The second half of the ritornello is now presented in A minor and the smooth entry into material that is quite contrasting to the rest of the movement is testament to Vivaldi’s skill.
The soloist re-enters in what could formally be described as the second solo section with a rhythmically varied melody that is still closely linked to the opening ritornello and retains the three note scalic motif. At measure 84 the listener could be excused for thinking that the final ritornello has been reached as it is in the home key and preceded by a trilled cadence. However, the insistent solo violin cuts of the ritornello abruptly two measures later and continues with further chromaticism in measures 95 and 96. The final ritornello arrives after what seems to be a rather indulgent solo and ends with an echoed passage marked forte as if to signal the end of the movement in declamatory fashion.
This movement is very much focused on the solo violin with the tutti accompaniment being minimal throughout. The ritornello sections punctuate the movement but in no way does the tutti enter into dialogue with the soloist or try to move the harmony along. Therefore, the roles of both tutti and soloist in this movement are rather unchanged it is rather the structural form, with the introduction and divided ritornelli, and the extended chromatic solo line that separate this movement apart from other works that are more rigidly applied to the ritornello form structure.
