Here is a sprightly version I found on YouTube. This was possibly written in 1715, while he was working at the Pieta. I chose this vintage performance by Julian Bream because many others seem a bit fast for my taste.įinally, one of my all-time favourites which is too short to make a blog on its own: the opening chorus of Vivaldi’s Gloria RV 589. This is a performance by David Guillén and Manuel Maria Moreno with the Orchestre de Chambre Francais.Ī commenter on the first publication of this article suggested the Concerto for Lute RV 93, dating from the 1730s. The instruments of the time were ‘natural’, or valveless, so much depended on the performer’s lip control – in other words a devil to play. When you see these original manuscripts it seems to highlight the genius of the composer.Īlthough he was unable to play the trumpet, Vivaldi wrote a brilliant concerto for two trumpets. It is not certain when Vivaldi composed his Concerto for Two Mandolins (RV 532) but it would have been around the same time.Īnd here is the autograph score. Here is a most enjoyable performance in an arrangement for guitars: Here is a performance by Avi Avital (b 1978), who is quite a rock star in the classical world, with the Venice Baroque Orchestra: He wrote the Mandolin Concerto in C major, RV 425, in 1725, the same year as the Four Seasons. Vivaldi composed many of his works for this all-female ensemble. The most talented pupils stayed and became members of the Ospedale’s renowned orchestra and choir. After only a year he was granted a dispensation from celebrating Mass because of his poor health, though he formally remained a member of the priesthood.Īround the same time he started work as a violin teacher at an orphanage for girls called the Pio Ospedale della Pietà (Devout Hospital of Mercy) in Venice. He was soon known as il Prete Rosso, ‘the Red Priest’, because of his red hair. At 15 he started training to be a priest and was ordained in 1703 at the age of 25. He learned the violin, becoming known as a virtuoso performer, and composition but could not play wind instruments because he had asthma. He was born in Venice in 1678 and baptised by the midwife at once, either because he was in fragile health or because there was an earthquake that day. This was first published on October 27, 2019.ĪNTONIO Vivaldi is renowned as the composer of the violin concertos known as the Four Seasons, but he left at least 500 other concertos including some for less usual instruments such as mandolin and lute. Over the summer we are repeating some articles from the Classics on Sunday series.
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