Antonio Vivaldi's Opus Four consists of a collection of a dozen concertos for violin, string orchestra, and basso continuo. Owing to some unusual and sometimes daring melodic and harmonic twists it carries the title La Stravaganza (The Extravaganza). The solo music includes a lot of melodic cantabile flights and also a lot of figural passagework that often rises to a virtuosic level. The ensemble begins this concerto's opening Allegro with and earnest ritornello that features a rhythmically driven idea followed by a bit of sustained lyricism. The continuo sometimes imitates the violin in the first solo outing (which eventually shades into figural passage work), and all of the remaining solo outings are all figurally driven. In the subsequent Largo the soloist presents a concerned cantilena over a continuo accompaniment that features some intriguing melodic and harmonic turns, and the ensemble provides an interlude and a postlude in sustained chords. The ensemble begins the concluding Allegro with an earnest rhythmically driven ritornello that features some unusual harmonic progressions. The soloist first extends the mood of earnestness over accompaniment from the continuo and then proceeds to an airy figural passage that sails over the violins in the ensemble. The remaining three solo outings feature figural passagework for the soloist over punctuations from the continuo.

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