Concertos for the EmperorFollowing the artistic heights and the overwhelming popular success of opus 8 (Il Cimento dell'Armonia e dell'Invenzione), nearly two years elapsed before Vivaldi and his Dutch publisher issued a new collection of twelve concertos, a collection which represented in some way the promised continuation of the earlier work: La Cetra. Concerti consacrati alla Sacra, Cesarea, Cattolica, Real Maestà di Carlo VI [. . . ] da Don Antonio Vivaldi [. . . ] Opera Nona. The fact that the cultivated and melancholic Hapsburg emperor-known throughout Europe for his talents as a harpsichordist, conductor and even, to some extent, composer- consented to receiving such a dedication was certainly not an inconsiderable honor. As to the musical contents of opus 9, this collection has a less clearly defined character than the virtuosic opp. 6 and 7 and the experimental op. 8; one might say that it is more eclectic.