Antonio Vivaldi: The Red Priest

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was taught at a very young age to play the violin by his father Giovanni Battista, who was a barber before becoming a professional violinist himself to the orchestra of the San Marco Basilica in Venice.  In 1693, at the age of 15, he started training for the priesthood and was ordained ten years later in 1703.  He would eventually become known as il Prete Rosso (”The Red Priest”) due to his red hair. 

Soon after his ordination, Vivaldi was appointed violin master at an orphanage called Pio Ospedale della Pietà (Devout Hospital of Mercy) in Venice.  However, in 1704, he was forced to withdraw from his priestly duties, mainly due to ill health, so he devoted his time to music instead.  Vivaldi spent most of his musical career with the Pieta: as violin master (1703–09; 1711–15), director of instrumental music (1716–17; 1735–38), and commissioned supplier of compositions (1723–29; 1739–40).  During his term, the Pieta orphans gained international appreciation and recognition for their outstanding choir and orchestra. 

Although his earliest compositions, which included trio sonatas, violin sonatas and violin concerti, date back to his first few years at the Pieta, Vivaldi would debut only in 1713 as a composer of sacred vocal music, which attained great success that he started receiving commissions from other institutions.  It was also in the same year when his first opera, Ottone in villa, was staged in Vicenza to critical acclaim, and thus, the beginning of a lucrative dual career of composer and impresario.

Vivaldi was such a prolific composer, having composed more than 500 concerti, of which 230 are for violin, the others being for cello, bassoon, oboe, flute, viola d’amore, mandolin, recorder, and other instruments.  He also wrote about 46 operas, 90 sonatas, 20 sinfonias, a large body of sacred vocal music and chamber music.

His most famous work is most certainly Le quattro stagioni (The Four Seasons) (1723), comprising of four violin concerti, each depicting a different season of the year.  They were considered revolutionary in terms of musical conception, since Vivaldi incorporated passages that represented flowing creeks, barking dogs, chirping birds, weeping shepherds, raging storms and many other scenes appropriate for each season.  Vivaldi pioneered fast-slow-fast movements of what would become the Classical three-movement concerto form.   

Vivaldi’s musical style was inventive, in the sense that his masterpieces were filled with harmonic contrast and creative melodies, often enlivening their formal and rhythmic structure. In fact, most of his works have been described as flamboyantly exuberant.

More classical music treats:

• Johann Sebastian Bach: The Well-tempered Musician
• Ludwig Van Beethoven: The Extraordinary Genius
• Hector Berlioz: Truly Fantastique
• Johannes Brahms: The Classical Romantic
• Frederic Chopin: The Poet of the Piano
• George Frideric Handel: The Harmonious Tunesmith
• Franz Joseph Haydn: Father of The Symphony
• Felix Mendelssohn: The Midsummer Night’s Dreamer
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: The Wunderkind
• Franz Schubert: The Great Lieder
• Antonio Vivaldi: The Red Priest