Antonio Vivaldi

(1678-1741)

Born in Venice, Vivaldi appears to have been quite a remarkable character. He started learning the violin at a very early age, being taught by his father and immediately showing great promise, and later became one of the most celebrated violinist/composers ever to have lived.

At the age of fifteen he started his training for the priesthood, which took almost ten years to complete, and when finally he had become a fully fledged priest, in 1703, he promptly decided to give up saying mass, on the rather spurious grounds of ill health. Apparently it was not uncommon for him to leave a service in mid-celebration, complaining of chest pains, only to rush out and scribble down a new tune for a concerto.

Although Vivaldi's main priorities were writing and performing music, he retained an almost life-long association with one of the major charitable institutions in Venice that was concerned with looking after and educating young orphaned girls – of which there were literally hundreds in Venice at the time. This place, La Pietà, as it was known, was also to become something of a mini-conservatoire of music. The children were educated with a definite bias towards music, all taking lessons on string instruments from Vivaldi and others. This led to numerous concerts being given by the youngsters to a remarkably high standard, which became something of a regular attraction in Venice. Vivaldi played a major role in the preparation and staging of these concerts and also brought in many other well-known composers and musicians of the day to take part.

From 1703, aged twenty-five, he concentrated on composing music. His first pieces were published a couple of years later, and he embarked upon what turned out to be a highly successful and rewarding career. Always travelling and extremely busy, Vivaldi liked not only to compose the music but to take an active part in rehearsing and conducting the performances as well.

He was an extremely prolific composer and during the period between 1703 and his death in 1741 he wrote an astonishing 750 works, most of which are of exceptional quality. His most famous work is that for violin and orchestra, The Four Seasons, and he is, perhaps, best known for his pieces written in a similar vein – the concertos for violin, guitar, bassoon and cello. There are, in addition, forty-six operas listed in the catalogue (although Vivaldi claimed to have written nearly a hundred, the remaining fifty or so of which are now lost), scores of works for miscellaneous wind instruments, trio sonatas, vocal pieces and a whole host of small chamber works.