![]() So much teaching work for Antonio Vivaldi Tourists poured in, lost their money, and often left behind pregnant Venetian girls, a situation that was the foundation of Vivaldi’s career. It was also the European centre of entertainment, with enormous numbers of casinos and brothels. In Vivaldi’s day Venice was the European centre of music, and especially of opera. The paintings of Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese still attracted art lovers from all over the world, and the fame of musicians such as the Gabrieli, and Monteverdi, influenced composers all over Europe. But the remnants of its once immense wealth and magnificence still remained. It was to finally lose its independence to Napoleon in 1797. Venice in the 17th century was no longer the great maritime power it had been, and had lost its position as the primary link between the Ottoman Empire and the rest of Europe. ![]() Vivaldi was born in Venice in 1678 to a well known violinist in the orchestra of the church of St Marks. Once the wig is removed outside the frame they both seem to be of the same man. Here’s his Gloria, with Trevor Pinnock’s English Concert: Īn anonymous painting of about 1723 thought to be of Vivaldi, and a 1725 engraving from one of Vivaldi’s scores, by François Morellon la Cave. There is no sleeping through a Vivaldi piece. A breath of fresh air that has proven both ubiquitous and there for the long haul. To stretch a point (to breaking point some would say), if the Romantic movement and early modern style in music is a bit like Led Zeppelin, then Vivaldi is a bit like the Beatles. Now he is as popular again as he ever was in his lifetime. Remarkable then that he was totally forgotten at his death, and unknown except to specialists for 200 years, until recordings of his music began to flood the music shops from 1950 onwards. He was, in his day, a household name all over Europe. Again like Mozart, Vivaldi was known to most of his contemporaries as a phenomenally gifted instrumentalist: in Mozart’s case the piano, in Vivaldi’s case the violin. Vivaldi was one of the most influential musicians in that tradition. In reality Vivaldi was one of the great musical explorers, and like Mozart’s his work seems to prefigure many later developments in European classical music. They say Vivaldi’s music is all alike, that he repeated himself endlessly, when it’s just they’ve heard the Allegro to Spring over 600 times. They’re in every lift, restaurant and shopping mall, so prevalent that some people develop an allergic reaction to them. Piazza San Marco in Venice by Vivaldi’s contemporary Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697-1768)Įveryone knows Antonio Vivaldi, right? The man from Venice who wrote The Four Seasons, a set of violin concertos you just can’t get away from.
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