The breadth and variety of structures and sonorities found in Antonio Vivaldi's extensive body of instrumental concertos, which number well into the 500s, attest to the composer's gift for being both prolific and innovative. Certainly, a number of characteristic features emerge when one considers a broad sample of his works, but even Vivaldi transgresses on occasion. Such is the nature of Vivaldi's Concerto in G minor, RV 107, one of Vivaldi's 23 so-called chamber concertos. In these works, Vivaldi dismisses the tutti orchestra that accompanies most of his concertos and instead articulates the standard solo/tutti contrasts of the traditional ritornello structure by varying the instrumentation within a small ensemble of woodwind or string soloists and continuo. This format combines the energy of contrast of the concerto with the intimacy and clarity of line afforded by chamber forces. But whereas most of Vivaldi's chamber concertos give clear prominence to a particular treble instrument in the solo sections (usually violin, flute, or oboe), relegating the other instruments to subservient accompanimental or countermelodic roles, the Concerto in G minor, RV 107, takes a decidedly more democratic approach to instrumentation. Likewise, it applies the ritornello principle in innovative ways and exploits the possibilities of variation form to maintain a continual diversity of timbres and textures. Perhaps the most unusual feature of the first movement is the extreme brevity of the ritornello, which lasts only three bars. Usually, the ritornello makes a more substantial statement, then reappears in snippets between the subsequent episodes. Here, the short ritornello immediately gives way to episodic diversions: a virtuosic triple-stop passage from the violin, a soaring duet by the flute and oboe, a flute solo, and a series of dizzying triplet runs from the violin hurried along by insistent repeated chords in the ensemble. The slow second movement, cast in a restless 12/8 meter, passes its somber melody between the upper instruments, above arpeggiated frettings in the violin and burbling octave alternations in the bassoon. The melody is subjected to a short series of variations, in which the expressive arcs of its contour are exaggerated and ornamented. The final movement also assumes a variation form, swinging widely in character between uneasy syncopation, mysterious proto-minimalist stasis, and pyrotechnic spectacle. Short melodic fragments pass deftly from one instrument to another in zigzagging ascents before circling in on themselves for the intensely motoric tutti passage that ends the piece.

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