THE RED PRIEST It was known that Vivaldi often excused himself during the middle of a Mass to write down his musical ideas in the back of the sacristy! (A sacristy is a room where the clergy don their ceremonial attire. It is also used for the keeping of communion vessels, altar hangings. Vivaldi structured the Magnificat, RV 610, in nine movements, eight for the text of the canticle (Luke 1:46-55) and the conclusion for the doxology. Set in G minor, it is scored for two soprano soloists, alto and tenor soloists, SATB choir, violin I and II, viola, and basso continuo, such as cello and a keyboard instrument. This item: Antonio Vivaldi: The Red Priest of Venice (Amadeus) by Karl Heller Paperback $34.95. Only 6 left in stock (more on the way). Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

1. Vivaldi The Red Priest Movie
2. Antonio Vivaldi Bio
3. Antonio Vivaldi The Red Priest

WRTI 90.1 brings you music to welcome the season of warm breezes, the lark, the snowdrop, and crocus. Here are 10 of our favorite works that sound like the season of renewal.

1. Ludwig van Beethoven, Violin Sonata No. 5, Op. 24 (“Spring”). Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 5 is often referred to as his “Spring Sonata.” Who knows what Beethoven would of thought of that; his sweet sonata wasn’t given the name “Spring Sonata” until after his death in 1827. Never mind. It aptly expresses the lively and playful qualities of the season.

2. Antonio Vivaldi, The Four Seasons La Primavera (“Spring”). How can we omit it! This best-known Vivaldi work for violin and strings is what we need this time of year. Composed in the early 1720s by the red-haired priest from Venice, the concerto “Spring” (followed by 'Summer,' 'Autumn' and 'Winter,' of course) is awash in a Vivaldi sunshine of strings in three movements: slow, fast and slow.

3. Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov, The Seasons (ballet). Russian composer Alexander Glazunov and Russian Imperial Ballet choreographer Marius Petipa worked together to present the ballet Les Saisons for the last Russian tzar, Nicholas II and his court at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg in 1900. At the start of the second part of this four-scene ballet, a harp signals the arrival of spring.

4. Edvard Grieg, “To Spring” from the composer’s Lyric Pieces. Norwegian composer and pianist Edvard Grieg wrote a voluminous collection of over 60 short piano solos, and a few orchestrated works. They’re contained in the ten 'sets' of his Lyric Pieces and his “To Spring” (Til Våren) in Book III is among the most famous. Here’s a beautiful interpretation by the late Russian pianist Sviatoslav Richter.

Hear Grieg play his composition in this recording from 1903.

5. Johann Strauss II, “Frühlingsstimmen” (“Voices of Spring”; with voice ad lib) Op. 410. This famous waltz originally featured a coloratura soprano who sings of “a million little voices of spring.” The orchestral or piano versions of this waltz are what you’ll hear more often these days, but first there was “the music of the breeze that comes humming through the trees.”

6. Christian Sinding, “Frühlingsrauschen” (“Rustle of Spring”). “Rustle of Spring” is the most popular piece of music ever composed by Norwegian Christian Sinding. It was a favorite among amateur pianists in the first half of the 1900's. The sheet music for Shindig’s short romantic melody would have graced piano stands in parlors, and then living rooms.

7. Frederick Delius “On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring.” Englishman Frederick Delius composed this tone poem, first performed in Leipzig, Germany in 1913. Can you hear the cuckoos calling? They’re woven into the piece subtly at the beginning and prominently in the middle. The cuckoo flies back in the form of clarinets at the end as the countryside awakens to spring.

8. Robert Schumann, Symphony No. 1 in B-flat major, “Spring.” The German composer and music critic Robert Schumann conceived this first symphony (“Spring”) with the season of rejuvenation in mind. His marriage to pianist Clara Wieck in 1840 touched off an intense period of creativity and “Spring” was among the many compositions he wrote during that time. (The wedding took place after he and Clara prevailed in a “marriage permission” lawsuit against her pianist father!) Schumann’s new wife encouraged him to turn from piano to orchestral music and his triumphant “Spring” debuted in 1841.

9. Claude Debussy, Symphonic Suite “Printemps.” Printemps (“Spring”) began as a piano duet sent by French composer Debussy to his benefactors. They wanted a progress report after awarding him a scholarship. Debussy was suppose to submit a full orchestral score, but in 1887 he claimed the score had been destroyed in a fire. Roughly a quarter century later Debussy added an orchestra score and his friend Henri Büser helped complete it with the humming chorus and piano we hear today.

10. Giuseppe Verdi, “Four Seasons” from the opera The Sicilian Vespers. Verdi’s “Four Seasons” ballet comes in the middle of an opera about the 13th century Sicilian uprising against the French occupation of Palermo, Italy. True! His vocal creation was originally performed in French for the Paris Opera. The ballet interlude was a nod to nineteenth century French opera tradition, in which a ballet opened the third act.

In this YouTube video, Paris Opera Ballet dancers begin in winter white. Pastel spring arrives roughly 8 minutes 15 seconds into the video. We hear the flute welcoming the first shoots of new growth. Verdi’s “Four Seasons” ballet was reborn when American choreographer Jerome Robbins took it in hand.

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Antonio Vivaldi, in full Antonio Lucio Vivaldi, (born March 4, 1678, Venice, Republic of Venice [Italy]—died July 28, 1741, Vienna, Austria), Italian composer and violinist who left a decisive mark on the form of the concerto and the style of late Baroque instrumental music.

Life

Vivaldi’s main teacher was probably his father, Giovanni Battista, who in 1685 was admitted as a violinist to the orchestra of the San Marco Basilica in Venice. Antonio, the eldest child, trained for the priesthood and was ordained in 1703. His distinctive reddish hair would later earn him the soubriquetIl Prete Rosso (“The Red Priest”). He made his first known public appearance playing alongside his father in the basilica as a “supernumerary” violinist in 1696. He became an excellent violinist, and in 1703 he was appointed violin master at the Ospedale della Pietà, a home for foundlings. The Pietà specialized in the musical training of its female wards, and those with musical aptitude were assigned to its excellent choir and orchestra, whose much-praised performances assisted the institution’s quest for donations and legacies. Vivaldi had dealings with the Pietà for most of his career: as violin master (1703–09; 1711–15), director of instrumental music (1716–17; 1735–38), and paid external supplier of compositions (1723–29; 1739–40).

Soon after his ordination as a priest, Vivaldi gave up celebrating mass because of a chronic ailment that is believed to have been bronchial asthma. Despite this circumstance, he took his status as a secular priest seriously and even earned the reputation of a religious bigot.

Vivaldi’s earliest musical compositions date from his first years at the Pietà. Printed collections of his trio sonatas and violin sonatas respectively appeared in 1705 and 1709, and in 1711 his first and most influential set of concerti for violin and string orchestra (Opus 3, L’estro armonico) was published by the Amsterdam music-publishing firm of Estienne Roger. In the years up to 1719, Roger published three more collections of his concerti (opuses 4, 6, and 7) and one collection of sonatas (Opus 5).

Vivaldi made his debut as a composer of sacred vocal music in 1713, when the Pietà’s choirmaster left his post and the institution had to turn to Vivaldi and other composers for new compositions. He achieved great success with his sacred vocal music, for which he later received commissions from other institutions. Another new field of endeavour for him opened in 1713 when his first opera, Ottone in villa, was produced in Vicenza. Returning to Venice, Vivaldi immediately plunged into operatic activity in the twin roles of composer and impresario. From 1718 to 1720 he worked in Mantua as director of secular music for that city’s governor, Prince Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt. This was the only full-time post Vivaldi ever held; he seems to have preferred life as a freelance composer for the flexibility and entrepreneurial opportunities it offered. Vivaldi’s major compositions in Mantua were operas, though he also composed cantatas and instrumental works.

The 1720s were the zenith of Vivaldi’s career. Based once more in Venice, but frequently traveling elsewhere, he supplied instrumental music to patrons and customers throughout Europe. Between 1725 and 1729 he entrusted five new collections of concerti (opuses 8–12) to Roger’s publisher successor, Michel-Charles Le Cène. After 1729 Vivaldi stopped publishing his works, finding it more profitable to sell them in manuscript to individual purchasers. During this decade he also received numerous commissions for operas and resumed his activity as an impresario in Venice and other Italian cities.

In 1726 the contralto Anna Girò sang for the first time in a Vivaldi opera. Born in Mantua about 1711, she had gone to Venice to further her career as a singer. Her voice was not strong, but she was attractive and acted well. She became part of Vivaldi’s entourage and the indispensable prima donna of his subsequent operas, causing gossip to circulate that she was Vivaldi’s mistress. After Vivaldi’s death she continued to perform successfully in opera until quitting the stage in 1748 to marry a nobleman.

In the 1730s Vivaldi’s career gradually declined. The French traveler Charles de Brosses reported in 1739 with regret that his music was no longer fashionable. Vivaldi’s impresarial forays became increasingly marked by failure. In 1740 he traveled to Vienna, but he fell ill and did not live to attend the production there of his opera L’oracolo in Messenia in 1742. The simplicity of his funeral on July 28, 1741, suggests that he died in considerable poverty.

Vivaldi The Red Priest Movie

After Vivaldi’s death, his huge collection of musical manuscripts, consisting mainly of autograph scores of his own works, was bound into 27 large volumes. These were acquired first by the Venetian bibliophile Jacopo Soranzo and later by Count Giacomo Durazzo, Christoph Willibald Gluck’s patron. Rediscovered in the 1920s, these manuscripts today form part of the Foà and Giordano collections of the National Library in Turin.

Antonio Vivaldi Bio

Antonio Vivaldi The Red Priest