- San Vidal Venice Vivaldi
- Venice Vivaldi Four Seasons Concert
- Venice Vivaldi
- Venice Vivaldi Concert
- Venice Vivaldi Concert
- Venice Vivaldi Concerts
Born in Venice in 1678, Antonio Vivaldi is recognized as one of the greatest Baroque music composers. Vivaldi is best known for his violin concerto The Four Seasons. Concerts of Vivaldi's work are held throughout the year in Venice.
Vivaldi in Venice
Overview of the study day
Antonio Vivaldi– the last of the great Venetian writers – is arguably the one Baroque composer whose music is a direct reflection of the city in which it was composed. Listen to a Vivaldi concerto and hey presto you are transported directly to the heart of 18th century Venice.
- Vivaldi is the one Baroque composer whose music is a direct reflection of the city in which it was composed. Listen to a Vivaldi concerto and hey presto you are transported directly to the heart of 18th century Venice. The reasons for this are many.
- Vivaldi had five known siblings: Bonaventura Tomaso Vivaldi, Margarita Gabriela Vivaldi, Cecilia Maria Vivaldi, Francesco Gaetano Vivaldi, and Zanetta Anna Vivaldi. His father, 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.
- The Violinist of Venice follows Adriana d’Amato through 30 years of struggles with passion, music, and repentance. It all begins when she seeks out famed composer and priest Antonio Vivaldi so she can take violin lessons again. They never expect that their lessons will turn into an intense love affair that thrills and consumes Adriana.
The reasons for this are many. First, Vivaldi was a son of Venice and had an inate understanding of Venice’s unique aesthetic, which included a passion for colour, spectacle and display of emotion, points that are reflected time and time again in his music. Second, Venice solved its problems with abandoned and orphaned children in a altruistic manner and the way in which that was done impacted on Vivaldi as a composer, teacher and musical director. Third, Vivaldi’s health problems and his eccentricities as a man and a priest dictated his path as a musician and performer in Venice’s cultural life.
Against the luxurious backdrop of 18th century Venice, and with live musical performances, this study day explores the amazing world of Vivaldi’s music – music that is as intrinsically Venetian as the canvasses of Canaletto.
Sample timetable with content
10.30-11.30 – Session 1
The Relationship of Vivaldi to Venice
The day opens with an introduction to the city of Venice, and explores what it is that has made Venice unique among European urbanizations. It examines Venice’s great love of ritual and spectacle and how this in turn is reflected in the music of Vivaldi – particularly in his concertos. It also looks at how Venice managed to redefine itself after its decline in the 17th and 18th centuries and how the music of Vivaldi and his contemporaries was designed to reflect Venice’s Indian summer of newfound confidence and brilliance.
11.30-11.45 – Break
11.45-1.00 – Session 2
The Ospedali
The second lecture examines the role of the Ospedali in the social and musical world of Venice. It looks, particularly, at the Pietà and Mendicanti institutions – with which both Vivaldi and his father had strong musical connections – and will show a wide range of documents, manuscripts and paintings that throw light on this very important area of Venetian charity and culture. It also examines some of the concertos that Vivaldi wrote for the pupils at the institutions to reveal the very high level of technique demanded of them in order to play the works.
San Vidal Venice Vivaldi
1.00-2.15 – Lunch
2.15-3.30 – Session 3
Vivaldi’s Impact on His Contemporaries
The final session takes a look at the impact of Vivaldi’s musical style on the music of his Venetian contemporaries, as well as on the music of JS Bach, GF Handel, M Corrette and J Stanley.
Some of the themes appearing in the study day
The Venetian Concerto
Throughout its history, show and spectacle have been central to the image that the Venetians have projected to rest of the world. Whether this was a dignified procession from the Doge’s palace to the basilica, or the annual Marriage with the Sea, when the Doge cast a gold ring into the lagoon as a sign of true and perpetual dominion over the Adriatic (see below). These events have all helped to give Venice a sense of theatre, showmanship and drama.
Venice Vivaldi Four Seasons Concert
Rituals of state reached their height during Vivaldi’s lifetime, when Venice consciously changed its identity from being a powerful force on the stage of European politics and international trade and commerce, to being a tourist attraction and a place of entertainment – a role that it has upheld to this day.
In the musical world of Venice, there is a particular form that may be said to parallel the phenomena of show and spectacle: the concerto – a form that even today is designed to entertain, to move, to amaze, and above all, to impress. Vivaldi is particularly remembered for the writing of concertos (some 600 in all), in fact, it could be argued that Vivaldi is the inventor of the concerto, as we might know it today. In other words, a musical form that is designed to show off the skills of a soloist – or soloists – who are placed against the backdrop of an accompanying orchestra.
Venice Vivaldi
The Ospedali
In order to understand Vivaldi and his relationship to the concerto – and therefore to Venice – the role of the four Ospedali needs to be considered. The Ospedali were charitable institutions for orphans and abandoned children, especially girls. Originally, these foundations were designed as ‘hotels’ for crusaders, but as the crusades abated, their function was changed into charitable foundations (orphanages), and became famous for their high grade level of tuition, and more important, for their high grade level of music making.
The four Venetian Ospedali attracted a wide range of high grade music teachers, for example after his arrival in Venice in 1670, Giovanni Legrenzi took a position as music teacher at the Ospedale Santa Maria dei Derelitti, remaining there until 1676. While in 1740, composer and harpsichordist Baldessare Galuppi was appointed director of music at the Ospedale dei Mendicanti.
The Ospedale della Pietà was the foundation with which Vivaldi had a lifetime connection (1703 -1739) and it was for them that the bulk of his concertos and religious music was written. The musical standard reached in the Pietà Chapel – and those of the other Ospedali – was so great, that large congregations were attracted to them in order to hear the choirs and instrumentalists perform, especially in Lent, when music in other churches tended to be less elaborate.
Edward Wright writing in the 1720s remarked:
Every Sunday and holiday there is a performance of music in the chapels of these hospitals, vocal and instrumental, performed by the young women of the place, who are set in a gallery above and, though not professed, are hid from any distinct view of those below by a lattice of ironwork. The organ parts, as well as those of the other instruments are all performed by the young women. They have a eunuch for their master and he composes most of their music. Their performance is surprisingly good … and this is all the more amusing since their persons are concealed from view.’
The public wanted to hear the girls play concertos, the girls needed concertos to play, and Vivaldi found employment by writing concertos. The writing of concertos, coupled with Vivaldi’s great skills as a violinist, made him become one of the greatest concerto writers of all time.
Venice and colour
Colour, is something that you can find everywhere in Venice, whether it is used in the decoration that can be seen on the west end of St Mark’s Basilica (below),
or whether it is the famous glass that is produced on the island of Murano, or even the highly decorated posters that advertise the carnival each year.
In the world of art, the Venetian painters were famous for their use of colour; and one of the most celebrated colourists of all time was Paolo Veronese, based in Venice, and his Wedding at Cana shows his skill in this direction to an astonishing degree (see below right).
This passion for – and use of – colour may in part reflect the ready availability of high quality pigments such as ultramarine, made from the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli imported from Afghanistan. And this, joined with the fact that canvas, the fabric of ship sails, was more popular as a support for paintings in Venice than anywhere else and may have stimulated a preference for the bold, highly visible, expressive brushwork that is such a distinctive feature of Venetian painting.
It could be argued then, that the long tradition Venice had for trading over seas, as well as its importance as a seafaring port, may well have had a direct influence on this aspect of the arts. This is cause and effect.
Turning now to music, I can think of no other Baroque composer who could be said to have more ‘colour’ in his music than Vivaldi. And by colour, I don’t just mean the subtleties of harmonic and rhythmic textures that lie in his compositions, but the highly imaginative scoring of his concertos and religious music. In other words, his choice of musical instruments for a particular work in question.
Vivaldi used a greater range of instruments in his music than any other composer that I know of during this period, and the range of instruments in turn reflects the variety of instruments played by the young girls at the Ospedale della Pietà: mandoline, tromba marina, recorders, bassoon, clarinet, trumpet, lute, horn etc
Top 10 facts about Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Vivaldi was a 17th and 18th-century musician who’s become one of the most famous figures in European classical music.
He was born on March 4, 1678, in Venice, Italy. Vivaldi must have been destined for greatness by virtue of his ground-shaking birth (Literally), a large earthquake occurred in Venice on his birthday.
Antonio Vivaldi was ordained as a priest at birth although he later chose to follow his passion for music. He became a prolific composer who created hundreds of works, became renowned for his concertos in Baroque style, and was a highly influential innovator in form and pattern.
Some facts about this Italian composer
1. Antonio Vivaldi was mentored by his father
Young Antonio was taught to play the violin by his father, Giovanni Battista Vivaldi, a professional violinist who was also a barber. Antonio got to tour Venice with his father while playing the violin together.
Through his father and the tours, Vivaldi met and learned from some of the finest musicians and composers in Venice at the time. While his violin practice flourished, chronic shortness of breath barred him from mastering wind instruments.
2. Antonio Vivaldi went to the monastery
At the age of 15, Antonio began studying to become a priest. He also took music lessons. He was ordained in 1703.
Due to his red hair, Vivaldi was known by the locals as “il Prete Rosso,” or “the Red Priest.” His career in the clergy was short-lived due to health problems that prevented him from delivering mass and drove him to abandon the priesthood shortly after his ordination.
3. Antonio Vivaldi the Maestro di violin
After leaving the priesthood, Vivaldi went to Ospedale della Pietà, an orphanage in Venice where he became the master of the violin.
He was regarded as an exceptional technical violinist as well as a famous composer. He began his career at the orphanage aged 25 and stayed for over three decades composing most of his major work.
The orphanages provided shelter and education to children who were abandoned, orphaned or came from poor families.
Vivaldi taught and mentored the children who began to gain appreciation and praises abroad.
4. Vivaldi had a strained relationship with his workmates
Despite his amazing work and excellent teaching skills that saw most of the children master their musical skills and even joining the Ospedale’s renowned orchestra and choir, his relationship with the board of directors of the Ospedale was often on the rocks.
The board would vote every year to decide whether to keep him as a teacher. They unanimously voted him out once, and only later realized the importance of his role after a year. The recalled him back.
During that time, Vivaldi practised as a freelance musician. He later became responsible for the entire musical activity o the institution when he was called back.
5. Vivaldi took on other jobs other than teaching
In addition to his regular employment, Vivaldi accepted a number of short-term positions funded by patrons in Mantua and Rome.
It was during his term in Mantua, from around 1717 to 1721, that he wrote his four-part masterpiece, The Four Seasons. He paired the pieces with four sonnets, which he may have written himself.
6. Antonio Vivaldi’s secret love life
Vivaldi took up a job offer as a Maestro di Cappella by prince Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt in Mantua. He produced several operas in the three years he was there.
It was during this time that he was introduced to Anna Tessieri Giro, who became his student and protégée. She later moved in with him and would accompany him on his many travels.
Speculations flew around whether the two were involved in a romantic relationship beyond their friendship.
Vivaldi was quick to deny the speculations in a letter he wrote to his patron Bentivogilo on November 16, 1737.
7. Vivaldi had tough Financial Times
Although he seemed to be a successful and famous musician, he faced financial difficulties like most of his fellow composers at the time.
In his later years, Vivaldi’s compositions were no longer held in high regard as they once were in Venice. This could be as a result of his changing musical tastes that outmoded.
To get himself out of the financial murk, Vivaldi opted to sell a huge number of his manuscripts at low prices to finance his move to Vienna.
8. Vivaldi spent time in Vienna
There is no clear reason as to why he moved to Vienna, but it is believed that after meeting with Emperor Charles VI, he aspired to take up a position as a composer in the imperial court.
Vivaldi also staged operas while in Vienna when he lived near Karntnertor theater.
His new life and career were cut short after Charles VI died, leaving him without royal protection and no steady source of income. Antonio Vivaldi sunk back into bankruptcy.
9. Vivaldi died poor
Photo by Wendy Scofield on Unsplash
Antonio Vivaldi died a pauper despite his fame. He died on July 28, 1741, aged 63 of an internal infection.
Venice Vivaldi Concert
No music was played at his funeral, only the bells at St. Stephen’s Cathedral chimed to note his passing. He was buried in a simple grave in a public hospital cemetery.
A memorial plaque has been placed on the site that was once his home, which has since been destroyed.
Venice Vivaldi Concert
10. Antonio Vivaldi’s life documented
His life has been featured in a 2005 movie, Vivaldi, A Prince of Venice. A radio play was also done for ABC Radio that same year.
Venice Vivaldi Concerts
The play was later adapted to a stage play titled The Angel and the Red Priest.
Vivaldi’s genius skills and music continue to influence many musicians centuries later. His complete music catalogue was found in 1926 at a boarding school in Piedmont. The music of Vivaldi has been performed widely since World War II. The choral composition Gloria, re-introduced to the public at Casella’s Vivaldi Week, is particularly famous and is performed regularly at Christmas celebrations worldwide. His work includes nearly 500 concertos that have influenced subsequent composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach.