![]() ![]() Over the next thirty years he composed most of his major works while working there. Vivaldi was only 25 when he started working at the orphanage. 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." While Vivaldi is most famous as a composer, he was regarded as an exceptional technical violinist as well. 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. At the Conservatorio dell'Ospedale della Pietà Vivaldi said Mass as a priest only a few times, and appeared to have withdrawn from liturgical duties, though he formally remained a member of the priesthood. Not long after his ordination, in 1704, he was given a dispensation from celebrating Mass because of his ill health. 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.) In 1693, at the age of fifteen, he began studying to become a priest. 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. One of his symptoms, strettezza di petto ("tightness of the chest"), has been interpreted as a form of asthma. 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. Giovanni Battista was one of the founders of the Sovvegno dei musicisti di Santa Cecilia, an association of musicians. 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, 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. Vivaldi had eight siblings: Iseppo Santo Vivaldi, Iseppo Gaetano Vivaldi, Bonaventura Tomaso Vivaldi, Margarita Gabriela Vivaldi, Cecilia Maria Vivaldi, Gerolama Michela Vivaldi, Francesco Gaetano Vivaldi, and Zanetta Anna Vivaldi. Vivaldi's parents were Giovanni Battista Vivaldi and Camilla Calicchio, as recorded in the register of San Giovanni in Bragora. Vivaldi's official church baptism took place two months later. In the trauma of the earthquake, Vivaldi's mother may have dedicated him to the priesthood. ![]() Though the reasons for the child's immediate baptism are not known for certain, it was done 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. ChildhoodĪntonio Lucio Vivaldi was born on Main Venice, then the capital of the Republic of Venice. However, the Emperor died soon after Vivaldi's arrival, and Vivaldi himself died, in poverty, less than a year later. After meeting the Emperor 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 all-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. His best-known work is a series of violin concertos known as the Four Seasons. He composed 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. Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was an Italian Baroque musical composer, virtuoso violinist, teacher and priest. ![]()
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