Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) started playing the violin in his early years. He started studying to become a priest when he was 15 and was ordained in 1703 at the age of 25. In September 1703 Vivaldi became a violin teacher at an orphanage where he started writing concertos and sacred vocal music for the oprhans. Later on he became responsible for all the musical activity of the institution. Around 1717 Vivaldi was offered a new position as Maestro di Cappella (in charge of music in a chapel) of the governor of Mantua. During this period Vivaldi wrote his famous four violin concertos the Four seasons.

Antonio Vivaldi's concertos cut a revolutionary swath through the more fustian rituals of high Baroque music in much the way that minimalism gutted academic serialism 250 years later. They standardized the fast-slow-fast movement scheme that has survived as the classic concerto pattern, and developed the ritornello form (in which a refrain for the ensemble alternates with free episodes for the soloist), using it as a vehicle for thematic integration and elaboration. Vivaldi's 500-plus concertos were athletic entertainments that swept continental Europe, influencing not only younger composers, but causing a wave of stylistic conversion in older ones.

Antonio Vivaldi wrote a set of sonatas, Op. 5, in 1716. This arrangement is from the Gavotta (Allegro) movement of the Sonata No. 2 in A Major, RV 30 à violino solo e Basso Continuo, Opera Quinta.

Although originally written for Violin and Basso Continuo, I arranged this piece for Flute & Bassoon.