Concerto in D minor for Mandolin and Harp, RV 541
About this Piece
Though Vivaldi wrote concertos for nearly every instrument, he left very few of them for keyboard instruments. This was partly because the notion of a keyboard concerto was new in his day (Bach and Handel were pioneers), but perhaps more likely because his frequent travels made him more temperamentally inclined toward portable instruments. Vivaldi gave the organ’s solo line to the organist’s right hand and had the left hand play the basso continuo line, which means the solo line can be transcribed not only for harp, but for nearly any treble instrument as long as there is a keyboard or lute to play the continuo.