Vivaldi was an Italian composer, violinist and conductor. A prolific Italian Baroque musician, he was nicknamed Il Prete Rosso (the Red Priest) because of his flaming hair color. Several of his concertos were transcribed by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Early Life of Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Vivaldi (March 4, 1678 – July 28, 1741), was an Italian composer, violinist and conductor. He was born in Venice, Italy, the eldest son of a professional violinist, and the only one of the six children to follow in their father’s footsteps. His father, Giovanni Battista, was originally a baker where the family lived in a simple Venetian home. He gave up the family tradition and became a musician, employed at St Mark's as a violinist.
Aged 15, Vivaldi was trained for the priesthood and ordained in 1703, at the same time he developed his own skills on the violin. He also became the Maesto di Violino at the Pio Ospedale della Pita, an orphanage for girls in Venice, where music played an integral part in the curriculum. The regular concerts given by the orchestra of the hospice were extremely popular.
Career Change: Priesthood to Musician
Soon after his ordination, in 1705, he ceased to say Mass claiming health reasons and was permitted to stay at home. He suffered from chest complaints possibly asthma or angina. This was to cause him problems later on when in 1737, a production of one of his operas was banned by the religious authorities, saying that the composer was a non-practising priest, aside from another allegation that he had a relationship with a female singer.
With the publication of Harmonic inspiration (1711), a collection of concertos for violins, Vivialdi also gained reputation as a virtuoso violinist, aside from being a composer and teacher. In 1713, his first opera, Ottone in villa, was performed in Vicenza.
Music Teacher and Composer
He spent a lot of his church career teaching at a girls’ orphanage. He wrote for them and for himself. He was known for his careless spending and large ego. Because he was a nonconformist, he usually got into trouble and easily the target of criticism, something he was extremely sensitive about.
European Tour and Final Years
He toured Europe between 1729 and 1733, and returned to Venice in 1739. In 1741, he travelled to Vienna, hoping for a court appointment. He died there the same year. After his death, there was a decline in popularity of Vivaldi's work but this was reawakened through the 19th century research of Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach also transcribed a number of Vivaldi's keyboard works.
Works by Vivaldi
Works by Vivaldi included some 20 Symphonies, 75 Sonatas, 400 Concertos including the enormously popular Le Quattro Stagione (The Four Seasons, 1725) for violin and orchestra, 40 Operas, and sacred music.
Vivaldi had enormous impact on the development of the concerto form, and greatly influenced 18th century music. He is best known today for The Four Seasons, a group of concertos for which he also wrote accompanying poems for each season.
Recommended Vivaldi CDs:
Vivaldi: Concertos and Sinfonias for Strings
Sources:
Great Composers by Golden Press (1989)
The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie (2000)
The Oxford Companion to Music, edited by Alison Latham (2002)
