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Vivaldi Antonio

 (1678-1741)

Italian composer, violinist, teacher, conductor, Catholic priest.

"Storm" from "Four seasons"

Now it seems incredible that the name of one of the greatest musicians of the late 17th and early 18th centuries was forgotten for almost 200 years. Only in the twenties of the twentieth century, an Italian musicologist accidentally discovered a collection of Vivaldi's manuscripts. It contained 19 operas and more than 300 instrumental compositions, as well as a large number of vocal and sacred music. Since that time, the revival of the former glory of this once well-known composer began.

  Not much is known about Vivaldi's life. He was born in Venice, where his father served as a violinist in one of the Catholic churches. He gave the future composer his first violin lessons. Since the family did not have money for the education of the boy, he was forced to take the veil as a monk. Only under this condition was Antonio able to enter one of the schools that trained musicians.

  After his graduation in 1703, Vivaldi began working as a violin teacher in a Venetian asylum for orphans and underage girls. At this time, he began to intensively compose music, since works of varying complexity were needed to teach the pupils.

  At the Vivaldi school, he organizes a choir and orchestra, which also perform his works. Since there were only girls in the school, Vivaldi began to teach them to play small instruments - violin, oboe. Gradually, the school was transformed into a women's conservatory. The secular tonality of Vivaldi's music and his love of life did not please the church authorities. Enemies even nicknamed Vivaldi "red priest". However, the fame of the young composer and his modesty, as well as the location of the Venetian authorities towards him, for a long time protected him from persecution.

  However, in 1720 Vivaldi was forced to leave the school. The formal reason was his departure from the altar during the service, which at that time looked like a challenge to established moral standards. After depriving Vivaldi of his priesthood, he left Venice and since then began the life of a touring musician.

  He entered the history of music as the creator of the instrumental concert genre. It was Vivaldi who gave it the traditional three-part form. Of the three concertos, he also created a work of a larger form, reminiscent of a modern symphony. One of the first works of this kind was his essay The Four Seasons, written around 1725. It served as the starting point for the famous suite of the Russian composer and conductor P. Tchaikovsky.

  Only in 1730 did Vivaldi return to Venice and become the head of the choir and orchestra of the Venice Conservatory. Vivaldi also became known as the greatest virtuoso violinist, who enriched the techniques of playing the violin. His dramatic manner of performing solo violin works was subsequently developed by the outstanding violinist Niccolò Paganini. An important component of Vivaldi's work was the composition of opera music. It is curious that he wrote all his operas on the plots of the same author - the playwright K. Goldoni.

Meet Vivaldi

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