Antonio VIVALDI

Antonio VIVALDI

Biography

Antonio Vivaldi was born in March 1678 in Venice, 

 He learned to play the violin at a very young age from his father, himself a violinist at Saint Mark’s Basilica. He was ordained a priest in 1703 at the age of 25, but had to give up practising because of illness.  He then gave parallel violin lessons at the Ospedale della pietà.

His qualities as a teacher, performer and composer quickly allowed him to become violin master then master of composition. It was in 1711 that his popularity became international when he published his collection «L'estro armonico».

The success was such that Johann Sebastian Bach transcribed a part for keyboard. In 1712, a second collection entitled «La stravaganza» was published followed by a third the following year, the opera «Ottone in villa» in Vicenza.  These masterpieces allow him to compose religious music as a chapel master at the Pieta, unfortunately most of the pieces dating from this period have disappeared.

«Virtuoso violinist and world-renowned baroque composer

In 1724, he composed the collection «Il cimento dell'armonia et dell' inventione» La confrontation entre l'harmonie et l'invention in which he produced his most famous violin concerto evoking with poetry and imagination the four seasons of the year.

Vivaldi left Venice in 1739, decided a year later to stop the music and settled in Vienna where he died in 1741.

A virtuoso violinist and world-renowned baroque composer, Antonio Vivaldi made a significant impact on the music of his time through his instrumental and concertante works. Vivaldi’s prolific work includes more than 470 concertos and symphonies, 45 operas, 2 oratorios, more than 100 cantatas, arias and serenades, 75 sonatas and some 40 works of sacred music.