--- In baroquemusiclovers@yahoogroups.com, realsongeur
<no_reply@y...> wrote:

Good morning to all of you.
This article & interview published by the internet site of "Goldberg"
tells us more about the work that has been recorded by Deutsche
Grammophon with the Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca conducted by Andrea
Marcon. Is this 'Andromeda liberata' by Vivaldi or not? It is and
will probably stay an open question...
I can't send both the article and the interview in the same mail; it
is divided in two mails.
Good reading.
C. Songeur.

1. The article

Copy & paste of:
http://goldbergweb.com/en/news/italie/2005/03/31101.php.

Specialists have long been aware of an anonymous serenata entitled
Andromeda liberata housed in the musical archives of Venice's
Benedetto Marcello Conservatory.
The forgotten score aroused minimal interest, however, until French
musicologist Olivier Fourčs identified one of its arias as having
been composed by Vivaldi. "Sovvente il sole" is a staggering largo in
A minor with an obligato violin part; the work is also included in a
precious autograph collection of arias which is preserved, like
Andromeda, in the Marcello Conservatory.
The attested presence of a Vivaldi aria in the anonymous and
generously proportioned serenata has catapulted Andromeda into the
limelight of musical topicality, and the question on everyone's lips
is whether the Red Priest could have written the entire work. An
impassioned and sometimes even tumultuous debate has animated
Vivaldian musicology for over two years, with the opposing sides
defending radically different positions.
The official opinion of the Venetian Instituto Italiano Antonio
Vivaldi, the heart and soul of Vivaldi research is, according to
Professor Michael Talbot, its principal researcher, that
only "Sovvente il sole" was composed by Vivaldi.
Talbot, who is also known for his work on Albinoni, clearly perceives
the hand of that composer - Vivaldi's Venetian `ancestor' - in
Andromeda, as well as that of Giovanni Porta, a reputed choir master
and prolific composer. The Instituto Vivaldi holds that Andromeda is
a simple pasticcio, a compilation of works by a variety of composers,
of which Vivaldi's contribution is but one element.
Olivier Fourčs, on the other hand, who carried out a painstaking and
fascinating study on the subject, believes that Vivaldi's
participation in the work was much more extensive. In his view the
piece was composed for the triumphal return of Cardinal Ottoboni to
Venice in 1726, and could be the Vivaldi vocal complement to the so-
called "Manchester Sonatas", which were dedicated to Ottoboni the
same year. Fourčs, to support his position, cites numerous typically
Vivaldian marks in the score; paper dating has shown that the same
paper was used for both the Manchester Sonatas and Andromeda.