The Il Gran Mogul concerto is a concerto

Concerto

A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...

 for flute

Flute

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...

 by Vivaldi, written in the late 1720s or early 1730s. It was the India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n part of a set of four 'national' concertoes, La Francia (France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

), La Spagna (Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

) and L'Inghilterro (England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

) - the other three are all lost.

It appeared in a Dutch bookseller's sale catalogue of 1759 and was then lost until 2010, when it was rediscovered by Andrew Woolley in the papers of Lord Robert Kerr

Lord Robert Kerr

Lord Robert Kerr was a Scottish nobleman of the Clan Kerr and a son of William Kerr, 3rd Marquess of Lothian.He is thought to have gone on a grand tour of Europe between 1732 and 1739, on which he acquired the only surviving score of the Il Gran Mogul concerto by Vivaldi - he played the flute...

 (?-1746), the son of William Kerr, 3rd Marquess of Lothian

William Kerr, 3rd Marquess of Lothian

William Kerr, 3rd Marquess of Lothian KT was a Scottish nobleman, styled Master of Jedburgh from 1692 to 1703 and Lord Jedburgh from 1703 to 1722...

, now in the National Archives of Scotland

National Archives of Scotland

Based in Edinburgh, the National Archives of Scotland are the national archives of Scotland. The NAS claims to have one of the most varied collection of archives in Europe...

. Kerr was a flautist himself and is thought to have collected it on a grand tour

Grand Tour

The Grand Tour was the traditional trip of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means. The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transit in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary. It served as an educational rite of passage...

of Italy.

External links

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/oct/07/vivaldi-flute-concerto-discovery-scotland
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/oct/07/vivaldi-il-gran-mogol-review
• http://www.editionhh.co.uk