The baroque conductor Rinaldo Alessandrini and the Concerto Italiano come back in instrumental music, ten years after the first volume of the Concerti per archi. Antonio Vivaldi 1648-1741 Concerti per archi II RV150, 134, 151, 119, 110, 160, 128, 164, 127, 166, 157 Concerto Italiano Rinaldo Alessandrini CONDUCTOR The Vivaldi Edition, a recording venture conceived by the Italian musicologist Alberto Basso (Istituto per I Beni Musicali in Piemonte) and the independent label Naïve, is one of the most ambitious recording projects of the twenty-fi rst century. Its principal objective is to record the massive collection of Vivaldi autograph manuscripts preserved in the Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria in Turin, some 450 works in all. This treasure is, in fact, Vivaldi’s private library of scores and includes fi fteen operas, several hundred concertos, and much sacred and secular vocal music, a large proportion of it completely unknown to the public. The collection was purchased for the library at the end of the 1920s by two generous benefactors in memory of their sons, Mauro Foà and Renzo Giordano. The Vivaldi Edition’s objective is to make this extraordinary wealth of music available to the public, revealing Vivaldi’s genius and historical importance not only as a composer of instrumental music and concertos but as the creator of some of the eighteenth century’s most important vocal music. Initiated in 2000 this ambitious project has released fi fty-one cds to date, just over two-thirds of their fi nal goal. Beyond the realm of recording, the Vivaldi Edition is active in promoting the performance of Vivaldi’s music in major festivals and concert series and in developing multimedia projects which bring together musicians, fi lm-makers, authors, visual artists and others. A website thoroughly documenting Antonio Vivaldi (www.antonio-vivaldi.eu) and a free iPhone application (My Vivaldi) are all part of our continuing efforts to bring this exceptional music to the public.