Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741) wrote over 500 concertos and his compositional conventions, such as the ritornello form and the three-movement structure, became the standard for concerto writing. Vivaldi wrote forty double concertos, but this is the only concerto scored for two solo mandolins. It is difficult to determine whether this work was an exploration in new instrumentation or if it was meant to satisfy the requests of patrons. In 1926, a party from the local Salesian community – a mission of priests founded by St John Bosco in nearby Monferrato – knocked on the door to check on the value of their collection of manuscripts. As a charitable brotherhood, they had inherited the collection from the family of one count Giacomo Durazzo, a famous arts patron. They now needed money to fund some much needed renovations to their buildings. As a result of their questions, the library in Turin contacted Durazzo’s descendants in Genoa, too. Soon, hundreds of previously unknown Vivaldi manuscripts were uncovered, now known as the ’Mauro Foa’ and ’Renzo Giordano’ collections. Among the dazzling jewels in this collection is this double concerto for two mandolins, which quickly became a twentieth-century favorite, a pleasure that had been denied to music-lovers of the preceding two hundred years.[NOTES REF: ClassicFM.com]