

A Venetian all his life, travelling but always returning, Vivaldi epitomizes Italian Baroque Music like no other composer.īut first, let us look briefly at Vivaldi's home City-State. Bach transcribed a number of Vivaldi's concerti for solo keyboard, along with a number for orchestra, including the famous Concerto for Four Violins and Violoncello, Strings and Continuo (RV 580) as BWV 1065.Antonio Vivaldi was a virtuoso violinist, a virtuoso composer – at least in terms of quantity – and a virtuoso teacher, as clearly evidenced by the level of competence attained by his pupils. Johann Sebastian Bach was deeply influenced by Vivaldi's concertos and arias (recalled in his Johannes Passion, Matthäuspassion, and cantatas). Vivaldi is considered one of the composers who brought Baroque music (with its typical contrast among heavy sonorities) to evolve into a classical style. This popularity soon made him famous in other countries such as France which was, at the time, very independent concerning its musical taste. The joyful appearance of his music reveals in this regard a transmissible joy of composing these are among the causes of the vast popularity of his music. Moreover, Vivaldi was able to compose nonacademic music, particularly meant to be appreciated by the wide public and not only by an intellectual minority. Vivaldi's music is innovative, breaking a consolidated tradition in schemes he gave brightness to the formal and the rhythmic structure of the concerto, repeatedly looking for harmonic contrasts and innovative melodies and themes. Most of Vivaldi's repertoire was rediscovered only in the first half of the 20th century in Turin and Genoa and was published in the second half. Many of Vivaldi's compositions reflect a flamboyant, almost playful, exuberance. The Four Seas ons, a series of four violin concerti, is his best-known work and a highly popular Baroque piece.



Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (Ma? July 28, 1741), nicknamed il Prete Rosso ("The Red Priest"), was a Baroque composer and Venetian priest, as well as a famous virtuoso violinist, born and raised in the Republic of Venice.
