Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (March 4, 1678 ? 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. The Four Seasons, a series of four violin concerti, is his best-known work and a highly popular Baroque piece.
Many of Vivaldi's compositions reflect a flamboyant, almost playful, exuberance. 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. 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. Moreover, Vivaldi was able to compose nonacademic music, particularly meant to be appreciated by the wide public and not only by an intellectual minority. 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. This popularity soon made him famous in other countries such as France which was, at the time, very independent concerning its musical taste.
Vivaldi is considered one of the composers who brought Baroque music (with its typical contrast among heavy sonorities) to evolve into a classical style. Johann Sebastian Bach was deeply influenced by Vivaldi's concertos and arias (recalled in his Johannes Passion, Matthäuspassion, and cantatas). 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. (Collapse)...(Read more)
Although Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) had already accomplished himself as a composer of violin sonatas and of sacred music, nothing propelled his caree...
Although Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) had already accomplished himself as a composer of violin sonatas and of sacred music, nothing propelled his career more than his first set of concertos -- L'estro armonico (Op.3) -- which first appeared in 1711. Besides being widely popular with both musicians and audiences of the day, L'estro armonico had a significant impact on the development of the relatively new solo-concerto. The set's influence was felt all across Europe -- no less a figure than J.S. Bach transcribed six of the Op.3 concertos for keyboard.
La Stravaganza (Op. 4) appeared shortly after, in around 1713, and was dedicated to Vettor Dolfin (the surname given in its Tuscan form, Delfino), a young Venetian noble to whom Vivaldi had taught the violin. While enormously successful in it's own right, this set of twelve concertos was a complete departure from Op.3. While the influence of the Corellian concerto grosso had been significant in L'estro armonico, in La Stravaganza Vivaldi severed himself completely from past traditions. The Op.4 set is characterized by harmonic daring, passage work bordering on the bizarre, and a new, uniquely flexible, solo-concerto "form" that would become so typical of Vivaldi. The originality and variety of material is also noteworthy; each work seems to systematically refute a different aspect of the traditional concerto, and even some standards of composition at the time. All this is not without its own sense of musical humor. However, the set also demonstrates the care the composer took over the selection and grouping of works destined for publication; i.e. grouping the concertos into pairs -- one major, one minor -- with an adjustment made to ensure that the whole set ends in major.
The Op.4 concertos are the earliest examples of a theatri al conception of the solo concerto to be offered to international audiences of music lovers. This, even more than Vivaldi's daring writing for the solo violin, is the true significance of the word stravaganza in the title. Indeed, among Vivaldi's printed works, the road to the future is marked by the Stravaganza concerti rather than those of L'estro armonico. Vivaldi would never retrace his steps in the direction of Op.3, and the collections which followed Op.4 further develop the concept of the instrumental solo as outlined in Op.4.
This Concerto in D Major for violin (RV 204 Op. 4 No. 11), is eleventh in the Op.4 set and although originally scored for Violin and Strings (2 Violins, Viola, Cello, Bass & Continuo), I created this arrangement for String Quartet (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).
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