He was born on March 4, 1678 as a premature
According to his mother’s saying, there was the earthquake on that day, so that made her pregnancy belly was strongly hit on the wall. Due to that dangerous situation, a baby was born in 7 months accidentally. That was Antonio Vivaldi.
His parents hesitated to baptist him because he seemed to die soon because of a weak constitution. After a few months, he looked to be fine, and then they baptized him with assure.
Il prete rosso (The Red Priest)
During his time, there were some people who had a dual job, priest and musician. But we only remember Vivaldi because of his popularity.
Being a priest meant that the future was guaranteed and had respects from society. That’s the reason why Vivaldi started to attend at the age of 15, and ordained in 1703.
But because of his feeble health, he didn’t practice at the abbey. Like modern students, he went to abbey in the morning and came back home in the evening. That was advantageous to him because he had a more time to study the violin with his father, Giovanni.
Ospedale della Pietà
This was a convent, orphanage, and music school in Venice. There were four ospedales in Venice and Pietà was one of them. They were established to accept orphans or patients as a sort of hospital, but later became an educational institution by expanding their purpose.
Vivaldi started his career as a violin teacher, and became a concert master until almost his death. Most of his works were composed for female orphans in Pietà. Some criticize his music is weak-kneed because of this environment, but I don’t agree with this. It just matters his personality and style of composing.
Virtuoso on Violin
Before Paganini, Vivaldi was considered as a virtuoso violinist during his lifetime. Unfortunately, there are no sufficient evidence on it. We can just refer from testimony of some witnesses such as Goldoni, a play writer.
Pisendel, one of his students
There are some violin concertos a title with ‘per Pisendel.’ That means Vivaldi dedicated them to his beloved student, J. G. Pisendel, who study abroad in Venice from Dresden, Germany. I guess that he was the only male student of Vivaldi due to Pietà female orphans, but I am not sure, just guessing.
After finishing his study, Pisendel came back to Germany and became a concert master of Dresden court orchestra. (before study abroad, his was just a player.)
Some of Pisendel’s works were also dedicated to Vivaldi. Most of his music just feels like Vivaldi, compared with an imposing style of other German composers.
An international celebrity
So we can assume that there might be a relationship between Vivaldi and Dresden court. Vivaldi contracted with Amsterdam publication company rather than in Italy because of better technology about printing, more vivid and more quantity. Thanks to this situation, J. S. Bach was able to buy some of his sheet music and transcribed for harpsichord or organ.
Special positive personality
There are some interesting episodes about Vivaldi, and we can conclude that he was such an optimistic person. Based on this personality, he died at the age of 63. This is a long life to a weak constitution, and unlike others in 17th or 18th century Europe.
Rumors
It is widely known that Vivaldi had a relationship with Anna Girò. Whatever the truth, this made him to be more stressful as a Catholic priest. And this is a still a bad reputation about him today.
But he didn’t be fired by Vatican thanks to his patrons or nobility supporters.
After his death 1
He passed away in Vienna almost without any money, unlike his popularity. A few days later, his tomb was destroyed, and his remains mixed with others. Nobody knows the reason why.
And the other interesting thing is, young F. J. Haydn sang in the boys’ choir for his funeral.
After his death 2
Thanks to J. S. Bach, we are able to listen to Vivaldi. Starting with I musici, we can enjoy a various Vivaldi works through especially great period instrument ensembles such as Europa Galante, Il Giardino Armonico, and Venice Baroque Orchestra. There are also great singers like Cecilia Bartoli who is considered as a pioneer for Vivaldi arias. I strongly recommend Viva Vivaldi, live video recording in 2000. (Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/AxwyQZhBlZw)
If you are wondering about recommendation of Vivaldi music, I can assist you with a grateful heart. Please give me some claps and leave a comment below. Thank you for reading a long article until the end.
