Vivaldi interesting facts from life for children. Antonio Vivaldi: biography, interesting facts, creativity

Factrum tells interesting facts from the life of Antonio Vivaldi.

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1. Vivaldi was born seven months old, very weak, but as red-haired as his father, who even in the St. The brand's name was Rosso, which means "red."
2. From birth, Antonio had a serious illness - a squeezed chest, asthma tormented him all his life, suffered from fits of suffocation, could not climb stairs and walk. But a physical disability could not affect the boy's inner world: his imagination truly knew no barriers, his life was no less bright and colorful than that of others, he just lived in music.
3. Antonio's first and main teacher was his father, Giovanni Battista, who by that time had already become a famous virtuoso.
4. Giovanni Batista, perhaps due to the poor health of his son, decided to make him a priest, because the dignity will always provide a position in society. Antonio was ordained a priest and the right to celebrate Mass, but soon stopped doing so, citing severe asthma attacks. True, it was said that the "red-headed priest" once during a solemn mass could not wait for the end of the service and left the altar in order to capture on paper in the sacristy an interesting idea about a new fugue that had come to his mind. Then, as if nothing had happened, Vivaldi returned to his "workplace". It ended with the fact that he was forbidden to serve Mass, which the young Vivaldi, perhaps, was only happy about.
5. The singer Anna Giraud, who took care of the health of the sick composer, became Vivaldi's constant companion and muse. She constantly lived in Vivaldi's house and accompanied him on numerous travels associated at that time with dangers and hardships. This relationship with Giraud, which was too close for a clergyman, was repeatedly criticized by the churchmen. Violation of the rules of behavior of the priest ultimately led to dire consequences for Vivaldi.
6. In a guide for visitors to Venice from 1713, Giovanni Vivaldi and his priest son Antonio are named as the best violinists in the city.
7. At the age of 35, Antonio worked in the theater "for three": he wrote operas (three or four a year), staged them himself, and even solved all financial issues himself - he became a co-owner of the Sant'Angelo Theater. In addition, he continued to teach and write music for Pieta, taking holidays there to stage his operas in other cities. Few healthy people are capable of such a rhythm of life, and after all, Vivaldi barely covered even the distance from the door to the carriage without assistance, he was so tormented by shortness of breath. But he did not seem to notice this, because his plans could not wait, he made himself the only indulgence: the theater "Sant'Angelo" - the closest to his house.
8. Vivaldi was the first to introduce the type of concerto for violin and orchestra, as well as for two and four violins. He created about twenty such concerts, including the only concert in the history of music for two mandolins.
9. Antonio was quite dexterous in money matters and did not hesitate to steal what was bad. Once Don Antonio was instructed to buy a harpsichord, for which 60 ducats were allocated from the treasury. He bargained with the seller for 30, and the rest simply whistled. They tried to judge him, but he, by that time a composer with a European name, managed to get out.
10. Johann Sebastian Bach was interested in his works, especially violin concertos, which he transcribed for other instruments. He arranged six of Vivaldi's concertos for piano or organ and orchestra. These works were considered the works of Bach for more than a century and a half.

A short biography of Antonio Vivaldi is outlined in this article.

Antonio Vivaldi biography briefly

Antonio Lucho Vivaldi- Italian composer, violin virtuoso, teacher, conductor, Catholic priest.

Born March 4, 1678 in Venice. His father taught him to play the violin, and from the age of 11 he could replace his father in the chapel of St. Mark's Cathedral.

But in addition to studying music, Vivaldichoted to become a clergyman. He was ordained in 1704. But due to poor health, after some time, he left his duties as a priest, but did not relinquish his dignity.

In 1709, Vivaldi was introduced to the monarch of Denmark, Frederick IV. The composer dedicated 12 sonatas to him, written for violin.

Vivaldi started as an opera composer. In 1713 he created a 3-act piece “Otto at the Villa”. A year later, a new opera, The Imaginary Madman, was created. It was based on the poem by L. Ariosto, "Furious Roland".

Vivaldi became popular in Venice, he had students. The composer also actively collaborated with the theater, from where a large number of orders were regularly received.

Over time, the name of the musician became known outside Venice. In 1718 his opera Skanderberg was staged in Florence. Soon he moved to Mantle and became Kapellmeister at the court of Prince F. Hesse-Darmstadt. Here he met A. Giraud (opera singer), who became a student of the composer.

In 1725, a cycle of his works “The Art of Harmony and Invention” was published. It included the Four Seasons concerts.

On March 4, 1678, a boy named Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was born into the family of a violinist in the Venetian cathedral. The baby was born two months ahead of schedule, and everyone expected him to die soon. That is why the baby was baptized immediately after birth. Later, three more daughters and two sons were born in the Vivaldi family, but none of the children, except for Antonio, became a musician.

There is no reliable information about Antonio Vivaldi's childhood. It is only known that the boy showed his musical gift very early. He was taught music by his father, Giovanni Batista Vivaldi, a famous violinist in Venice, and, barely reaching the age of ten, Antonio fully replaced his father in the orchestra that played in St. Mark's Cathedral. And this happened quite often, since Vivaldi Sr. was a popular musician outside Venice. In addition, it is believed that Antonio studied composition with Lehrenzi. One of his earliest musical works, Vivaldi composed in 1691, this musical study is attributed to him precisely because of the characteristic features of the work.

But first, Antonio Vivaldi chose for himself a career not musical, but spiritual, and on September 18, 1693, a fifteen-year-old boy receives tonsure and the lowest degree of the clerical title - "goalkeeper", a minister who opens the gates of the temple. Nevertheless, music remains his main hobby. Ten years later, in the fall of 1703, Antonio was ordained a priest. But even earlier he acquired the fame of an outstanding musician, violin virtuoso, and therefore he was invited to the Venetian conservatory "Ospedalle de la Pieta" as a teacher.

According to the teaching canons of the eighteenth century, Vivaldi, as a teacher, was obliged to write for his students and learn with them a fairly significant amount of secular and sacred music - sonatas, concerts, cantatas, oratorios, and so on. But Antonio, in addition, had time to study with choristers, and conduct rehearsals with the orchestra. Largely thanks to the activities of Vivaldi, the conservatory in which he taught began to stand out against the background of other similar institutions in Venice. It should be noted that Venice, like northern Italy, was at that time the birthplace of many great instrumentalists, and therefore it was a great honor to stand out among them. In 1705, a publishing house in Venice published twelve Vivaldi sonatas, designated as opus No. 1. Later, Vivaldi often turned to this genre, and about eighty of his sonatas are known in total.

In 1711, Antonio Vivaldi received a fairly high and constant annual salary and became the director of concerts at his conservatory. During this period, Vivaldi's music became popular throughout Europe, and almost everything favored his success. Many noble foreigners who visited Venice considered it compulsory for themselves to attend Vivaldi's concerts, because in 1709 Frederick IV, King of Denmark, became one of the listeners of these concerts, and Vivaldi dedicated violin sonatas to him. In 1712, the famous twelve Vivaldi concertos for violins with accompaniment were published in Amsterdam. The concerts from this opus are the most demanded and often performed so far.

In 1713, Vivaldi was officially appointed to the post of chief composer of the Venetian "Ospedalle de la Pieta". Simultaneously with this appointment, he became interested in a new genre for him - opera. In the same year, he was granted a month's leave specifically to participate in the production of Otgon at the Villa, his first opera. The opera is highly appreciated by the audience, and the inspired composer presents his second opera a year later, Roland Pretending to be Mad. After that, eight Vivaldi operas were staged in Venice in just five years. Despite the success of the operas and a huge number of tempting offers, the composer remains faithful to his conservatory and, after performances and rehearsals, invariably returns to Ospedalla de la Pieta. The brilliant composer managed to do everything and, while writing operas, created two magnificent oratorios based on Latin texts. The first was performed in 1714 - "Moses, God of the Pharaoh." The second, "Judith Triumphant," was in 1716. The score of Vivaldi's oratorio "Moses, God of the Pharaoh", unfortunately, has been lost - in Rome, only the text has survived, where the names of the performers are indicated. An analysis of this text showed that almost all parts of the oratorio, including men, were performed exclusively by girls, students of the conservatory.

The famous Italian virtuoso, like a magnet, attracted musicians from all over Europe, and they would have considered it an honor to study under his guidance, but Vivaldi preferred intensive work in the theater to everything. In addition, he received a new commission and for the 1716 Carnival wrote for the theater troupe "Sant'Angelo" twelve main arias of the opera "Nero Made by Caesar." At the same carnival, the theater "San Angelo" performed the opera "The Coronation of Darius", and the theater "San Moise" - the opera "Constancy Triumphant Over Love and Hate." How the great composer managed all this remains a real mystery.

Vivaldi also had troubles. In 1720, in the midst of the carnival season, an anonymous author published a pamphlet that caustically and wittily ridiculed one of Vivaldi's operas. The author aptly and talentedly noticed many theatrical cliches and debunked them. The authorship of the pamphlet became known much later - the successful composer Benedetto Marcello failed in the opera genre, and this probably prompted him to create a poisonous work. Vivaldi bore this strongest blow with honor - without making a squabble, for about four years he did not stage new operas and underwent a revision of almost all of his work.

In 1720, Vivaldi was invited to serve with the Margrave Philip von Hesse-Darmstadt, who at that time was the head of the Austrian imperial troops in Mantua. Here Vivaldi met the opera singer Anna Giraud, who was the daughter of a French hairdresser. Goldoni claims in his memoirs that Vivaldi once introduced him to Anna as his student. The most curious thing is that Goldoni also wrote about Anna's obvious ugliness, although he recognized her grace and undoubted acting talent, immediately indicating that the singer's voice range was very small. By that time, Vivaldi's health was already undermined, and Paelina, Anna's sister, took full care of him. Both women permanently resided in the composer's house and invariably accompanied him on all his travels. The church has more than once expressed a negative attitude towards the relationship between Vivaldi and the Giraud sisters, which is too close for a person of clerical rank and gives rise to numerous gossip.

After three years of service with the Austrian Margrave in Mantua, the composer returned to Venice. Anna Giraud came with him, and this gave the Venetians the opportunity to sarcastically call her "the friend of the priest." Vivaldi spends the next two carnival seasons in Rome. Performances in the eternal city have always been considered the most serious test of composers' talent, and Vivaldi passed it with honor. In 1723, his opera Hercules on Thermodon was staged in Rome, and the following year, Justin and Virtue Triumphant over Love and Hate.

The most popular among Vivaldi's contemporaries were the programmed concerts of the composer, and especially his magnificent "Seasons". This name was given to the first four concertos for string orchestra and violin. In Paris, they loved this music so much that it was invariably performed since 1728, and the score was published as a separate edition. A great connoisseur of Vivaldi's music was Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who was then working in Venice at the French embassy. Rousseau himself performed the music of his favorite composer on the flute.

Probably the apotheosis of Vivaldi's operatic creativity is the Olympiada (libretto by Metastasio), which the audience saw for the first time at the Teatro Sant'Angelo in 1734. The plot of the famous playwright and poet inspired Vivaldi, and taking into account his past mistakes, the composer created a highly artistic work, multifaceted and full of dramatic collisions and incomparable beauty of music. This fact was indisputably recognized by A. Casella, a researcher of Vivaldi's opera music.

However, Vivaldi faced a heavy blow of fate. On November 16, 1737, he was unequivocally pointed out violations of obligations to the church - the Venetian nuncio announced Vivaldi a ban on travel to Ferrara (Papal States) and reported Cardinal Rufo's dissatisfaction with the composer's behavior. Vivaldi himself said about this that he was probably punished for refusing to serve mass and for his affection for the singer Giraud. This blow from the Roman Church not only covered the composer with shame and discredited him as a clergyman, but also caused significant material damage.

At the conservatory "Ospedalle della Pieta" on March 21, 1740, practically the last concert of the composer was given. Frequent absences for staging their operas, as well as the discontent of the churchmen, significantly spoiled the relationship between Vivaldi and the leadership of the conservatory. In addition, a new generation of violinists and composers appeared in Italy at that time, and against their background, Vivaldi's music began to seem dull and outdated to society. At the end of autumn 1740, Vivaldi left the conservatory, the fame of which he had ensured for many years. In the documents of Ospedalle della Pieta, the composer was mentioned for the last time on August 29, 1740 in connection with the sale of his concerts at the price of one ducat apiece. Such a low cost, apparently, is explained by the composer's great financial difficulties, especially since at the same time he was preparing to travel. At the age of sixty-two, Vivaldi decided to leave Venice, which had cooled to him and his work. At the invitation of Charles VI, he arrived in Vienna, but he was not lucky here either. The king died, and with the outbreak of war, music receded into the background.

Abandoned and forgotten by all, the Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi died on July 28, 1741 in Vienna. In the funeral protocol, general internal inflammation was indicated as the cause of death. The composer's property was sold out as debts, the body was buried in a cemetery for the poor, and only a month later the Vivaldi sisters learned of his death.

Vivaldi's music was revived when Gentili, an Italian musicologist, accidentally discovered the composer's unique manuscripts in early 1923. The collection contained nineteen operas, over three hundred concerts, as well as secular and spiritual vocal compositions. Vivaldi's fame returned to him - but only two hundred years later ...

Antonio Vivaldi was born on March 4, 1678 in Venice, Italy. An Italian composer and violinist who left a decisive mark in the form of a concert and the style of late baroque instrumental music.

Vivaldi's main teacher was probably his father Giovanni Battista, who in 1685 trained for the priesthood. His distinctive reddish hair later earned him the nickname Il Prete Rosso ("The Red Priest"). He made his first known public performance while 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. Pieta, specializing in the musical education of her female wards, and those with musical aptitude have been referred to their excellent choir and orchestra, whose repeated performances have helped in the search for an organization of endowments and bequests.

Soon after his ordination as a priest, Vivaldi refused to celebrate Mass due to a chronic ailment believed to be bronchial asthma. Despite this circumstance, he took his secular priest seriously and even earned a reputation as a religious fanatic.

Vivaldi's earliest musical compositions date from his early years at 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 concertos for violin and string orchestra (Opus 3, L "estro armonico) was published by the publishing company in Amsterdam Estain Roger In the years prior to 1719, Roger published three more collections of his concertos and one collection of sonatas.

Vivaldi achieved great success with his sacred vocal music, for which he later received commissions from other institutions. Another new area of ​​his activity opened in 1713, when his first opera, Otto in the Villa, was released in Vicenza. Returning to Venice, Vivaldi immediately plunged into operatic activity in the role of the composer's and impresario's twin. From 1718 to 1720 he worked in Mantua as director of secular music for the governor of that city.

The 1720s were the zenith of Vivaldi's career. Founded again in Venice, but traveling frequently elsewhere, he served instrumental music to patrons and clients across Europe. During this decade, he also received numerous commissions for operas and resumed his activities as an impresario in Venice and other cities in Italy.

In the 1730s, Vivaldi's career gradually declined. The French traveler Charles de Broses reported in 1739 with regret that his music was no longer fashionable. Vivaldi's impresariotic forays were increasingly marked by failure. In 1740 he went to Vienna, but he fell ill and did not live to attend his opera L "oracolo there in Messinia in 1742. The simplicity of his burial on 28 July 1741 indicates that he died in considerable poverty.

After Vivaldi's death, his huge collection of musical manuscripts, consisting mainly of autograph assessments of his own works, was associated with 27 large volumes. They were acquired first by the Venetian bibliophile Jacopo Soranzo, and then by Count Giacomo Durazzo, patron saint of Christoph Willibald Gluck. Discovered in the 1920s, these manuscripts today form part of the Foa and Giordano collections of the National Library in Turin.

About Vivaldi

The genius of Italian music Antonio Luciano Vivaldi wrote a huge number of works. Author of about 90 operas, more than 500 solo concerts accompanied by an orchestra.

The musician was born into the family of a barber in Venice on March 4, 1678. The father of the future composer Giovanni was a virtuoso violinist. Growing up surrounded by violin music, Antonio from the age of 10 replaced his father, who played in the chapel of St. Mark.

At the age of 25, Vivaldi began teaching at the monastery's orphanage school. His responsibilities included teaching music to the girls at the orphanage. The teaching activity involved writing works for students. During this period of his life, the composer wrote more than 60 works in different directions: concerts, oratorios, vocal music.

In 1705, the first 12 sonatas by Antonio were published, called Opus 1. In 1706, the composer's first public performance took place in the palace of the French ambassador. While performing in 1709 at the Pieté Conservatory, Vivaldi was introduced to King Frederick IV of Denmark, to whom 12 violin sonatas were dedicated to composers.

Since 1713, Vivaldi discovered a new path in creativity - the creation of opera works. According to the composer himself, he wrote more than 90 works in this genre, but about 50 have survived to this day. Initially, operas were successful in secular society, but it was fleeting. In 1721, Antonio visited Milan, where he presented to the public the musical drama Sylvia, after which the composer returned to writing works on biblical themes for the church.

The next three years of the composer's life can be called the Roman period of his life. Moving to the capital of Italy has become very symbolic for Vivaldi. He wrote operas and performed for the Pope. During this period, his famous concerts from the cycle "Four Seasons" were written. The uniqueness of the work was in the presentation of sound, when the plot themes of the work were reflected in thin lines of music (falling on the ice, the voice of children, the barking of a dog, the murmur of a brook).

As fame faded in his homeland, the composer's popularity grew in Europe. The Austrian emperor Charles VI, with whom Vivaldi had a personal acquaintance, highly appreciated his creations. At the invitation of the emperor, the musician moved to Vienna for permanent residence. The emperor's patronage did not last long, his death and the war in Austria led to the oblivion of Antonio.

The composer died in 1741 in poverty and loneliness. Even in his youth, having given a celibate dinner, Vivaldi had no family, no children. They buried him in the Viennese cemetery of the poor. The world for 200 years has forgotten about the work of the great genius. Only JS Bach sincerely admired the music of the Italian. The revival of the name Vivaldi took place in the middle of the 20th century. Now Antonio's works are performed at many concerts of classical music.

Refined luxury, splendor and whimsical aesthetics of the Baroque era are fully embodied in the work of the famous Venetian Antonio Vivaldi. He is called "Italian Bach", and for good reason: in 63 years of his life, the musician wrote about 800 works, including operas, choral works, more than 500 concerts for various instruments and orchestra. A talented innovative composer, virtuoso violinist, brilliant conductor and teacher, he left behind not only a rich artistic heritage, but also so many mysteries that many of them have not yet been revealed. Even the exact place of his resting place is unknown to descendants. But Vivaldi's extraordinary music, over whose magnetism time has no power, has survived in its original form and today occupies an honorable place among the greatest treasures of the world musical art.

Read a short biography of Antonio Vivaldi and many interesting facts about the composer on our page.

Short biography of Vivaldi

In 1678, in Venice, the son of Antonio was born into the family of the barber Giovanni Batista Vivaldi. At the end of the 17th century, Venice was a recognized capital of entertainment, a city-holiday, where all life passed to the sound of music, and the house of the future composer was no exception in this sense. The head of the Vivaldi family was so skillful in playing the violin that he was invited to perform in the orchestra of St. Mark's Cathedral.

Antonio suffered from a physical illness from birth - a form of asthma. But of all the six children of Vivaldi, he was most like his father - not only with the fiery red hair that is rare for the inhabitants of Venice, but most importantly - the ability to hear and feel music. Musical talent Antonio Vivaldi made itself felt from early childhood. He quickly mastered the game on violin and at the age of 10 he often performed in the cathedral orchestra instead of his father. And at the age of 13, the boy first tried to compose his own music.

The biography of Vivaldi says that at the age of 15, Antonio's life took a sharp turn - at the insistence of his parents, he chose a career as a clergyman and devoted the next 10 years of his life to the study of church sciences. At the same time, he did not give up music lessons and by 1703 he not only received the clergy, but also became famous as a virtuoso violinist. For the color of his hair he was nicknamed "the red priest", but Vivaldi did not fulfill his church duties for long. Very quickly he refused to lead Mass - according to one version, because his health did not allow, according to another - again because of his addiction to music.

Almost immediately after receiving the dignity, Vivaldi began to work in one of the schools in Venice "Ospedale della Pieta" - that was the name of the house of the orphanage at the monastery. Ospedale della Pieta has become a real cradle for Vivaldi's work. As a violin teacher and choirmaster, he acquired a unique opportunity to implement the most daring and diverse creative ideas. On duty, he had to write for the pupils of the school a lot of music of both spiritual and secular content - cantatas, chorales, oratorios, vocal and symphonic compositions, concerts. The results of such an ebullient and diverse activity quickly made themselves felt - among connoisseurs and connoisseurs of music, the school began to be considered the best in the city.

For the Pieta orchestra, Vivaldi composed more than 450 concertos and often performed solo violin parts himself. Venice has never heard such a violin, which gave birth to sounds as if from the depths of the human soul.

Very quickly, the popularity of the young composer has stepped far beyond the boundaries of his native city. Every distinguished guest who comes to Venice considered it his duty to attend the performances of Antonio Vivaldi. In 1705 and 1709, the musician's sonatas were published in separate collections.

But Antonio was already carried away by another idea - to become an opera composer. At that time, opera was considered the most popular genre among the audience, and Vivaldi, with his inherent purposefulness and indomitable temperament, plunged into a new kind of creativity for him. His opera debut, Otto in the Villa, staged in 1713, was a tremendous success. Vivaldi begins to work in a crazy rhythm - he manages to create 3-4 operas per year. His fame as an opera composer grows, and Antonio receives an invitation from the Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt, a subtle connoisseur of musical art, who holds the post of governor of Mantua, to become a conductor at his court.

In 1721-22, Vivaldi worked in Milan and Rome, continuing to compose new operas.

In his declining years, the composer's affairs were greatly shaken. He decided to return to Venice, hoping to find peace of mind in his hometown, which had applauded him for nearly 40 years. But disappointment awaited him. The music he composed no longer aroused its former delight, the public had new idols. Even in his native conservatory, with which he was associated with 38 years of fruitful work, he was given to understand that his services were not really needed.

According to Vivaldi's biography, the composer in 1740, in search of a way out of the situation, went to Vienna, to the court of Emperor Charles VI, his longtime and powerful admirer, in the hope that his talent would be in demand there. But fate prepared another blow for Vivaldi - he did not have time to come to Vienna, as Charles VI died. The composer outlived his failed patron for a very short time. He died on 28 July 1741 and was buried in Vienna in the grave for the poor.

Interesting Facts:

• After 1840, many handwritten versions of Vivaldi's works were lost and disappeared from people's memory for a long time. Some of the notes fell into the hands of his fellow composers, as well as close relatives.

• Vivaldi owes his "second birth" to the Italian musicologist Alberto Gentili, who was actively searching for the composer's works. In the 1920s, he heard a rumor about the sale of handwritten scores that were kept in the convent college in San Martino. Among them, Gentile discovered 14 volumes of Vivaldi's works, which until now remained unknown to the public - 19 operas, more than 300 concerts, many spiritual and secular vocalizations.
• The search for Vivaldi's lost works continues to this day. In 2010, his Flute Concerto was found in Scotland. In 2012, the world recognized his unknown opera "Orlando Furioso".
• Famous contemporaries of the musician were admirers of Vivaldi's art. Among his listeners were King Frederick IV of Denmark and Pope Benedict.
• In a Venetian guide for foreigners from 1713, Vivaldi's father and son are listed as the most accomplished violinists among the musicians in Venice.

• The most popular depiction of the composer is considered to be a painting by the French portrait painter François Morelon de la Cave. For the portrait, Antonio had to wear a white wig - the etiquette of those times did not allow men to appear in the world without a wig.
• Vivaldi's "calling card" is a cycle of violin concerts "Seasons"- in the original version it is called "The four seasons" "Le quattro stagioni".
• Only 40 of the 90 operas mentioned by the composer were able to confirm their authorship.
• Sonnets are staged as epigraphs for the concerts that make up the Seasons cycle. Their author is unknown, but it is assumed that they also belong to Vivaldi.
• In 1939, Gloria was revived. It was performed in Siena as part of the Vivaldi Week organized by the Italian Alfredo Casella.
• The Siena Institute is named after Vivaldi.
• The building of the former school "Ospedale della Pieta" currently houses a restaurant and hotel complex.
• Vivaldi and Mozart buried in a cemetery in Vienna, where some of the poorest members of the population were buried.

• "To the music of Vivaldi" - this is the name of the song of the luminaries of the author's song V. Berkovsky and S. Nikitin on the verses of A. Velichansky. Vivaldi's music in this song text is a symbol of the spiritual harmony of the lyric hero.
• One of the open craters on the planet Mercury is named after the composer.
• "Vivaldi Orchestra" is the name of the collective, which was created in 1989 by the violinist and conductor Svetlana Bezrodnaya. Its uniqueness is that it is composed exclusively of women. This is a kind of "remake" of the orchestra of the pupils, organized by Vivaldi at the Ospedale della Pieta school at the beginning of the 18th century.
• In the famous film "Pretty Woman", Vivaldi's music, as conceived by the directors, became one of the illustrations of the world of high society. The tape contains Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" - three concerts out of four.

• Vivaldi owns a catch phrase: "When one violin is enough, do not use two."
• Italian scientists made an amazing discovery about three years ago - they identified the so-called "Vivaldi effect". They conducted an experiment, as a result of which it was found that periodic listening to "The Seasons" strengthens the memory of elderly people.
• Swiss figure skater Stéphane Lambiel won a silver medal at the 2006 Turin Olympics while skating to Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

"The friend of the red-haired priest"

There are many "blank spots" in the composer's biography, and his personal life is no exception. His name is closely associated with only one woman - singer Anna Giraud. The musician met Anna during his work in Mantua. He returned to Venice with her. The famous Venetian playwright C. Goldoni mentions that Vivaldi introduced him to Anna Giraud, calling her his student. But evil tongues quickly christened the young singer "the friend of the red-haired priest," and not without reason. The composer clearly favored her, from the moment they met, he wrote operas especially for her, and it was Vivaldi that Anna owes the fame of an opera singer. In addition, Anna, along with her sister Paolina, was part of his closest circle, accompanied the composer on all trips, and this gave rise to a lot of rumors about the fact that the composer leads a lifestyle that is not befitting a clergyman.

There is no direct evidence of their romantic relationship. Moreover, Vivaldi fiercely defended Anna's honor, explaining to everyone that due to health problems he needed help, and Anna and Paolina, who was a nurse, only looked after him. In a letter to his patron Bentivoglio dated November 16, 1737, he explained that he and Anna were connected only by friendship and professional cooperation. The only hint that Anna was still the composer's muse and the lady of his heart is the magical music he wrote after meeting her. It was then that the cycle “The Four Seasons”, which had immortalized his name, the “Night” concerts, and the masterpiece of sacred music “Gloria”, appeared.

Whoever Anna was for Vivaldi, we must pay tribute to her - she did not leave the composer in difficult times for him and was his devoted companion and girlfriend until his last breath.

Vivaldi's role in the development of world musical art

Vivaldi's influence on the development of musical art extends to a wide range of musical activities, which confirms the uniqueness of the creative personality of the talented composer and virtuoso violinist.

• It was thanks to Vivaldi that a completely unique in terms of dramatic intensity, the technique of performance, which is called "Lombard", was strengthened, when the duration of the first note was shortened and the following became rhythmically basic.
• Vivaldi's composer's genius came up with the idea of ​​a new genre of solo instrumental concert.
• He put on a new stage of development the genre of concert grosso, popular in Italy, - an ensemble-orchestral concert, to which he assigned a three-part form and instead of a group of soloists singled out a separate solo instrument, endowing the orchestra with the function of accompaniment.
• Vivaldi's contribution to the evolution of the art of orchestration is enormous - he was the first to introduce oboes, French horns, bassoons and other instruments as independent instruments into the orchestral composition.
• Vivaldi's undoubted achievement is that he embodied on stage a special kind of concerts - for orchestra and violin and another version - for two and four violins. All in all, in his creative heritage there are about two dozen such concerts, among them the only concert in the world for two mandolins.

Vivaldi's compositions had a great influence on the most famous representative of the musical art of the Baroque era - Johann Sebastian Bach... He was seriously fond of and studied in detail the works of Vivaldi, actively used the techniques of the musical language and the symbolism of his predecessor, making their meaning deeper. Some musicologists in Bach's most famous Mass h-moll find undoubted echoes of the works of the Italian master of composition. Subsequently, Bach transposed 6 Vivaldi concertos for violin for the clavier, converted 2 more into organ concertos and adapted one for 4 claviers. Ironically, these musical masterpieces have been thought to be composed by Bach for over 150 years.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Austrian composer and musician Fritz Kreisler, an acknowledged master of stylization, writes a Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in C major, to which he subtitles "In the Vivaldi Style". The tremendous success accompanying this brilliant creation of Kreisler, by inertia, aroused interest in the works of Vivaldi, which were thoroughly forgotten. Thus began the victorious return of the famous Venetian and his masterpieces to the musical Olympus. Today Vivaldi's music is one of the most beloved by violinists around the world.

Great and famous about the work of Vivaldi

• Violinist and conductor Vladimir Spivakov poetically called The Seasons “a fresco of human life,” since man has to overcome the same path as nature - from birth to death.
• According to the Austrian scientist V. Collender, Vivaldi was several decades ahead of the development of European music in terms of the use of dynamics and purely technical techniques of playing the violin.
• Vivaldi's ability to write an infinite number of variations on the same musical theme became the basis for the sarcastic remark of I. Stravinsky, who called Vivaldi "a bore who can compose the same concert six hundred times in a row."
• “Vivaldi is a celebration of instrumental music, a violin extravaganza. Hehe himself was a virtuoso violinist and knew better than others how to show the mosteffective in the sound of a violin ", - this is how Dmitry Sinkovsky, a modern violinist, winner of the competition of early music in Bruges, commented on the work of the great maestro.

Biography films:

The composer's personality has always attracted the attention of filmmakers, who, based on Vivaldi's biography, shot several films that tell about the life of a musician.

• Documentary "4" (2007)
• "Viva, Vivaldi" (France, 2000)
• Vivaldi in Vienna (1979)
• "Vivaldi, Prince of Venice" (France, 2006)
• "Vivaldi, the red-headed priest" (UK, Italy, 2009)
• "Antonio Vivaldi" (USA, Belgium, 2016)

Vivaldi's music in films

The work of Antonio Vivaldi has become the quintessence of all the best features and outstanding successes of the Italian school of music. But the fate of the maestro is a vivid illustration of the fact that glory and oblivion in human life go hand in hand. Just 30 years after his death, mention of Vivaldi, even in passing, is not found in any official sources, unlike other Italian composers. And only at the beginning of the 20th century, Vivaldi's music returned to us, touching souls with its sincerity and melody. Today it adorns the repertoires of the most famous orchestras. It took almost two centuries for the world to rediscover the music of the great Venetian and to appreciate its magnificence.

Video: watching a film about Vivaldi