Vivaldi the Red

No, Antonio Vivaldi wasn’t a Communist, nor was he a murderer.  He was, however, a priest, and a red-headed one at that.  In fact, he was called il prete rosso, the red priest, by his fellow Venetian citizens.

And his father, who was also a musician and probably Vivaldi’s first boyhood teacher, sometimes went by the surname Rossi, perhaps an indication that red hair, and musicianship, ran in the family.

In the above image he is wearing a wig (typical of the time) and he looks rather angelic.  And he was quite angelically gifted: a violin virtuoso, a teacher, a prolific composer of operas, oratorios, sonatas (solo, trio, you name it), Masses, psalms, motets, concertos (solo, double, multiple, for double orchestra, for small ensemble, for strings and continuo!), cantatas and sinfonias; so boldly musical that he turned the concerto world upside down with his ideas; so influential that Bach himself transcribed several of his concertos for study purposes.

He was also volatile, vain, boastful, extremely sensitive to criticism, and preoccupied with money!

Vivaldi began training for the priesthood in 1693 at the young age of 15 and was ordained as a priest in 1703, but he may well have intended a career as a musician from very early on, for he stopped celebrating Mass as a priest probably in 1706.  Years later he said it was for health reasons, which may well have been true (it is thought he suffered from asthma), but his health did not stop him from pursuing his energetic artistic activities or from traveling on extended concert tours!  In fairness to Vivaldi (after all, he isn’t here to defend himself), priests were plentiful in Venice, and many of them had parallel careers as artists or professionals of some sort.  In fact, two careers may have been an economic necessity in the city, even for priests.

This is just a quick glimpse of the man who wrote the delightfully fresh and lyrical Gloria in D major (RV 589), justifiably famous and a favorite with modern audiences, for the girl musicians, which he helped train, in the Ospedale della Pietà, one of a string of charitable institutions in Venice (more on this in a future blog).  Master Chorus Eastside will perform the Gloria in March 2014, and I’ll explore the man and his music in our next few blogs; as well as the men behind several of our other March concert works, and their surprising and often endearing quirks and personalities.

In the meantime, whet your appetite with the first movement of Vivaldi’s Gloria.

Dr. Linda Gingrich

Artistic director and conductor

Master Chorus Eastside