Vivaldi: Famous Concertos

Various

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Cat No: 8554040

Release Date: 12 January 1999

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 636943404027

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: VIVALDI

Description
Antonio Vivaldi(1678-1741) Famous ConcertiOnce virtuallyforgotten, Antonio Vivaldi now enjoys a reputation that equals theinternational fame he enjoyed in his heyday. Born in Venice in 1678, the son ofa barber who was himself to win distinction as a violinist in the service ofthe great Gabrielis and Monteverdi at the basilica of San Marco, he studied forthe priesthood and was ordained in 1703. At the same time he establishedhimself as a violinist of remarkable ability. A later visitor to Venice describedhis playing in the opera-house in 1715, his use of high positions so that hisfingers almost touched the bridge of the violin, leaving little room for thebow, and his contrapuntal cadenza, a fugue played at great speed. Theexperience, the observer added, was too artificial to be enjoyable.Nevertheless Vivaldi was among the most famous virtuosi of the day, as well asbeing a prolific composer of music that won wide favour at home and abroad andexercised a far-reaching influence on the music of others.For much of his lifeVivaldi was intermittently associated with the Ospedale della Piet?á, one of thefour famous foundations in Venice for the education of orphan, illegitimate orindigent girls, a select group of whom were trained as musicians. Veniceattracted, then as now, many foreign tourists, and the Piet?á and its music longremained a centre of cultural pilgrimage. In 1703, the year of his ordination,Vivaldi, known as il prete rosso, the red priest, from the inheritedcolour of his hair, was appointed violin-?¡master of the pupils of the Piet?á.The position was subject to annual renewal by the board of goven1ors, whosevoting was not invariably in Vivaldi's favour, particularly as his reputationand consequent obligations outside the orphanage increased. In 1709 he brieflyleft the Piet?á, to be reinstated in 1711. In 1716 he was again removed, to begiven, a month later, the title Maestro de' Concerti, director of instrumentalmusic. A year later he left the Piet?á for a period of three years spent inMantua as Maestro di Cappella da Camera to Prince Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt,the German nobleman appointed by the Emperor in Vienna to govern the city.By 1720 Vivaldi wasagain in Venice and in 1723 the relationship with the Piet?á was resumed, apparentlyon a less formal basis. Vivaldi was commissioned to write two new concertos amonth, and to rehearse and direct the performance of some of them. Thearrangement allowed him to travel and he spent some time in Rome, andindirectly sought possible appointment in Paris through dedicating compositionsto Louis XV, although there was no practical result. Vienna seemed to offermore, with the good will of Charles VI, whose inopportune death, when Vivaldiattempted in old age to find employment there, must have proved a veryconsiderable disappointment.In 1730 Vivaldivisited Bohemia; in 1735 he was appointed again to the position of Maestro de'Concerti at the Piet?á and in 1738 he appeared in Amsterdam, where he led theorche
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