There's a beautifully reworked version of the Concerto for Viola d'amore, Lute, and Orchestra, but most effective are the arrangements of works originally intended for voice. The set features three of the more than 25 cello concertos written by the prolific composer but Ma and Koopman opt to further broaden the scope of available works by not limiting themselves to pieces written expressly for the instrument. His arrangements for string quartet, trio and other combinations number well over 250 and are played by hundreds of groups all over the world.Yo-Yo Ma reunites with Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra for a third disc of period instrument interpretations, this time under the rubric VIVALDI'S CELLO.

In the 1960's he turned to film music to make a living, and also worked steadily as a freelance viola player. By the time he was 21 he had written a string quartet and had already had a great deal of success with several large scale serious symphonic compositions, notably his Second Symphony, which had many performances and broadcasts by several major orchestras in the few years after its completion. Just before his twelfth birthday he started taking regular violin lessons and very soon began writing elaborate orchestral scores achieving a mastery in this field by the age of sixteen, by which time he had obtained a County Scholarship to attend the Royal College of Music in London, studying composition and viola. By the age of eleven Carlo had developed a passion for the symphony orchestra. Carlo Martelli was born on the 12th December 1935 in London to an Italian father and an English mother.

Vivaldi winter viola