

#VIVALDI COMPOSITIONS FREE#
The German architect Johann Friedrich Armand von Uffenbach referred to Vivaldi as “the famous composer and violinist” and said that “Vivaldi played a solo accompaniment excellently, and at the conclusion he added a free fantasy which absolutely astounded me, for it is hardly possible that anyone has ever played, or ever will play, in such a fashion.” In September 1703, Vivaldi became maestro di violino (master of violin) at an orphanage called the Pio Ospedale della Pietà (Devout Hospital of Mercy) in Venice. While Vivaldi is most famous as a composer, he was regarded as an exceptional technical violinist as well. At the Conservatorio dell’Ospedale della Pietà Vivaldi only said Mass as a priest a few times and appeared to have withdrawn from priestly duties, though he remained a priest. Not long after his ordination, in 1704, he was given a dispensation from celebrating Mass because of his ill health. In 1693, at the age of fifteen, he began studying to become a priest. He was ordained in 1703, aged 25, and was soon nicknamed il Prete Rosso, “The Red Priest”. ( Rosso is Italian for “red”, and would have referred to the color of his hair, a family trait.) His symptoms, strettezza di petto (“tightness of the chest”), have been interpreted as a form of asthma. This did not prevent him from learning to play the violin, composing or taking part in musical activities, although it did stop him from playing wind instruments. Vivaldi’s father may have been a composer himself: in 1689, an opera titled La Fedeltà sfortunata was composed by a Giovanni Battista Rossi – the name under which Vivaldi’s father had joined the Sovvegno di Santa Cecilia. The Luxembourg scholar Walter Kolneder has discerned the influence of Legrenzi’s style in Vivaldi’s early liturgical work Laetatus sum(RV Anh 31), written in 1691 at the age of thirteen. It is possible that Legrenzi gave the young Antonio his first lessons in composition. The president of the Sovvegno was Giovanni Legrenzi, an early baroque composer and the maestro di cappella at St Mark’s Basilica. Antonio was probably taught at an early age, judging by the extensive musical knowledge he had acquired by the age of 24, when he started working at the Ospedale della Pietà. Giovanni Battista was one of the founders of the Sovvegno dei musicisti di Santa Cecilia, an association of musicians.
#VIVALDI COMPOSITIONS PROFESSIONAL#
Vivaldi’s parents were Giovanni Battista Vivaldi and Camilla Calicchio, as recorded in the register of San Giovanni in Bragora.Vivaldi had five siblings: Margarita Gabriela, Cecilia Maria, Bonaventura Tomaso, Zanetta Anna, and Francesco Gaetano. Giovanni Battista, who was a barber before becoming a professional violinist, taught Antonio to play the violin and then toured Venice playing the violin with his young son. In the trauma of the earthquake, Vivaldi’s mother may have dedicated him to the priesthood. Vivaldi’s official church baptism took place two months later. Though not known for certain, the child’s immediate baptism was most likely due either to his poor health or to an earthquake that shook the city that day. He was baptized immediately after his birth at his home by the midwife, which led to a belief that his life was somehow in danger. Vivaldi’s Life ChildhoodĪntonio Lucio Vivaldi was born in 1678 in Venice, then the capital of the Republic of Venice. However, the Emperor died soon after Vivaldi’s arrival, and Vivaldi himself died less than a year later in poverty. After meeting theEmperor Charles VI, Vivaldi moved to Vienna, hoping for preferment. Vivaldi also had some success with expensive stagings of his operas in Venice, Mantua and Vienna. Many of his compositions were written for the female music ensemble of the Ospedale della Pietà, a home for abandoned children where Vivaldi (who had been ordained as a Catholic priest) was employed from 1703 to 1715 and from 1723 to 1740.
#VIVALDI COMPOSITIONS SERIES#
His best-known work is a series of violin concertos known as The Four Seasons.

He is known mainly for composing many instrumental concertos, for the violin and a variety of other instruments, as well as sacred choral works and more than forty operas.

Born in Venice, he is recognized as one of the greatest baroque composers, and his influence during his lifetime was widespread across Europe. 8)Īntonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678–28 July 1741) was an Italian baroque composer, virtuoso violinist, teacher and cleric. Antonio Vivaldi (engraving by François Morellon de La Cave (fr), from Michel-Charles Le Cène’s edition of Vivaldi’s Op.
