Antonio Vivaldi

 Antonio Lucio Vivaldi

( 1678 -  1741 )

 

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was born in Venice on March 4th, 1678. He was a great Italian composer and violinist related to the environment of the late Venetian Baroque. He was one of the most admired violinists of his time, considered the most important and original composer of the Italian peninsula.

The Four Seasons a popular series of four violin concerts is his best-known work and is representative of the baroque period in European classical music. In fact Vivaldi is considered one of the composers who brought baroque music (with its typical contrast among heavy sonorities) to evolve into a classical style.

The musical education of Antonio is uncertain, some people assumed it was the father to teach him to play the violin, because it was one of the most brilliant violinists of the city. Instead, it is said that his musical training was under the guidance of Master Giovanni Legrenzi.

In 1730 he became a priest and with his hair color became known as the "Red Priest." From there he began his musical career at the Ospedale della Pietà, an important orphanage at that time. At first he was engaged as a violinist, then as choirmaster and later "Master of Concerts".

After a great success a woman, Anna Giro, or Giraud, enters the life of the artist. Their love and artistic union continued until the death of the composer. He instructed her as an opera singer and she became his muse. During their acquaintance, she played 19 roles in his works.

On June 28, 1741, for 12 guilders, Vivaldi sold his last work to the last count of Collalto Antonio Vinciguerra. Now at the end of his career, he lost the reputation accumulated over the years. In 1741, due to his poverty he had to liquidate all its assets, to charge the hospital for concerts and arrange a trip to Vienna, where he hoped to start a new life. There he died, alone, forgotten and poor on July 28, 1741. The body was buried in the "graveyard of poor sinners" after a small funeral, attended by no more than twenty people, including, perhaps, Anna Giro.

The music of Vivaldi, as well as being of a peerless brilliance and often exquisite melodic invention, is very important also from a historical point of view, as he belonged to the late Venetian Baroque and as to the evolution of forms. He gave form and perfection to the final “solo” concert, by confirming the tripartite division and promoting the opposition “chorus-soloists”. He also introduced an intense expression into the soloists parts which merge in a brilliant style akin to the “bel canto” (nice singing) of the Venetian or Neapolitan opera of that time. His “sinfonie” and his “concerti ripieni” gave him a privileged position at the origins of the classical symphony.

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