Scholars and discerning performers have long questioned the authenticity of Il pastor fido, published in Paris in 1737, as Vivaldi's Op. 13. Walter Upmeyer, in the preface to his 1955 edition of the six sonatas for Barenreiter unwittingly, perhaps, reveals his own doubts by arguing too strongly but from a weak vantage point a case for accepting them as pieces from Vivaldi's pen: ''...it would be unwise to doubt Vivaldi's authorship...Although it cannot be denied that individual movements...do not go beyond a certain impersonal style, it should not be overlooked on the other hand that other parts...bear the stamp of the genius of the great Venetian. In any case,'' Upmeyer lamely concludes, ''the performance of these sonatas, which could also be used for dancing, will not be disappointing.''
More recently, Peter Ryom has expressed doubts concerning the authenticity of Il pastor fido though includes the set both in his shorter catalogue of Vivaldi's works (1973) and in the larger one (1986). But his doubts were fully justified for, in 1989, a French musicologist, Philippe Lescat, discovered the sonatas to be the work of Nicolas Chedeville (1705-82), court oboist and, for a time, a member of the Paris opera orchestra. The full story is included in the booklet accompanying this disc.
Chedeville was a musette player as well as an oboist and taught the instrument to the daughters of Louis XV. Mainly to enlarge its repertory he published numerous arrangements for musette of other composers' music including movements from various concertos by Vivaldi; indeed, the concluding movement of the last sonata in Il pastor fido is largely transcribed from the opening movement of the G minor Violin Concerto in Vivaldi's La stravaganza (Op. 4). Other Vivaldi borrowings in the set, though identifiable, are more modest.
I confess to having always found these pieces extraordinarily dull. Perhaps the innocent ear might have responded to them more favourably but anyone with affection for and knowledge of Vivaldi's music must surely have been puzzled by their former attribution. Far and away the most effective movements are those which make greatest use of Vivaldi's originals. Otherwise, these are pieces with severe modulatory boundaries seldom adventuring beyond the tonic and dominant. Irena Grafenauer, who plays a modern flute and piccolo, brings plenty of pastoral charm to the music with clearly shaped and articulated phrases and with effective embellishments; and she is supported by a continuo team consisting of cello, bass and organ/harpsichord. But the acoustic is too reverberant to reflect the intimate rococo surroundings for which this music was intended and the bass instruments sound rather woolly. Summer cocktail party music.'