Antonio Vivaldi

Italian composer and violinist

Photo by: Unknown author · Public Domain · Wikimedia Commons

Born:March 4, 1678

Died:July 28, 1741

Age at death:63

Zodiac Sign:Pisces

Born in:Venice, Italy

Buried in:Austria

Languages:Latin, Italian, Venetian

Composer Latin Catholic Priest Theatre Manager Chapelmaster Opera Composer Violinist Music Director Music Educator Musician Catholic Priest

Signature

Links

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Famous For

Notable Work

The Four SeasonsL'estro armonico, Op. 3Orlando furiosoJuditha triumphansGiustino

Books

Concerto for Two Trumpets in C MajorConcerto for Four Violins and Cello in B Minor, Op. 3, No. 10Violin Concerto in B MinorO'th sedd ar ddeheulaw y Duw dad = Qui sedes ad dexteram : contralto 18-25 oedCanwn fawl : [o] Gloria

Songs & Albums

Filiae maestae JerusalemAhoraAntonio Vivaldi discographyA. Vivaldi: Gloria / J. S. Bach: Magnificat

Antonio Vivaldi

Italian composer and violinist

Biography

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist, and impresario of Baroque music. Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi was influential across Europe during his lifetime, giving origin to many imitators and admirers. He pioneered many developments in orchestration, violin technique and programmatic music. He consolidated the emerging concerto form, especially the solo concerto, into a widely accepted and followed idiom. Vivaldi composed many instrumental concertos, for the violin and a variety of other musical instruments, as well as sacred choral works and more than fifty operas. His best-known work is a series of violin concertos known as The Four Seasons. Many of his compositions were written for the all-female music ensemble of the Ospedale della Pietà, a home for abandoned children in his native Venice. Vivaldi began studying for the Catholic priesthood at the age of 15 and was ordained at 25, but was given dispensation to no longer say public Masses because of a health problem. Vivaldi also had some success with expensive stagings of his operas in Venice, Mantua, and Vienna. After meeting the Emperor Charles VI, he moved to Vienna, hoping for royal support, but the Emperor died soon after his arrival, and Vivaldi died in poverty less than a year later. After almost two centuries of decline, Vivaldi's musical reputation underwent a revival in the early 20th century, with much scholarly research devoted to his work. Many of his compositions, once thought lost, have been rediscovered – some as recently as 2015. His music remains widely popular in the present day and is regularly played all over the world.

This biography uses content from the Wikipedia article “Antonio Vivaldi”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

Quotes

“Translation: If you don't like this, I'll stop writing music.”

— Quoted in: Michael Talbot (1978) Vivaldi, p. 90; An ironic note written upon an aria score of his opera Orlando Furioso (1727).

Quotes sourced from the Wikiquote article "Antonio Vivaldi", available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

Photos

Onbekend - Antonio Vivaldi - Bologna Museo Internationale e biblioteca della musica di bologna 28-04-2012 9-21-050

identified by Federico Maria Sardelli in 2026

Gedenktafel an der Begräbnisstaette (ehemaliger Bürgerspital-Gottesacker) von Antonio Vivaldi in Wien, Karlsplatz 12

Titre uniforme : Vivaldi, Antonio (1678-1741). Compositeur. [Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione. Op. 8] Présentation musicale : [Parties] Appartient à l’ensemble documentaire : RISMImp Avec mode texte Concertos (violon et orchestre à cordes) -- +* 1700......- 1799......+:18e siècle: La Cave, François-Morellon (1696-176.). Graveur Éditeur : A Amsterdam : spesa di Michele Carlo Le Cene, libraro, [1725]

Antonio Vivaldi engraving

"An anonymous portrait in oils in the Museo Internazionale e Biblioteca della Musica di Bologna is generally believed to be of Vivaldi and may be linked to the Morellon La Cave engraving, which appears to be a modified mirror reflection of it. It is striking how the engraving and the painting 'secularize' Vivaldi: they contain no hint of his identity as a priest. (The fashionable, though slightly informal, dress and self-confident attitude of the composer resemble very closely those of Telemann in the well-known engraving by Georg Lichtensteger.) Ghezzi's sketch likewise shows Vivaldi in a non-clerical black stock as opposed to the white clerical stock and still wearing a wig. (Two years later, in the anno santo of 1725, Innocent XIII was to ban the wearing of wigs by priests.) There is disagreement over whether the hint of red showing in front of the centre of the composer's wig in the painting is a sly reference to his famous hair-colour or simply an unpainted part of the canvas. Whatever the case, it is not out of place to observe that, contrary to the belief of many modern illustrators, Vivaldi's wigs were never coloured red." Michael Talbot, The Vivaldi Compendium (2011), p. 148. The proposition that the painting actually depicts Antonio Vivaldi has been questioned by some sources (e.g. by Groves dictionary).