Vivaldi was only 25 when he started working at the Ospedale della Pietà. The German architect Johann Friedrich Armand von Uffenbach referred to Vivaldi as “the famous composer and violinist” and said that “Vivaldi played a solo accompaniment excellently, and at the conclusion he added a free fantasy which absolutely astounded me, for it is hardly possible that anyone has ever played, or ever will play, in such a fashion.” In September 1703, Vivaldi became maestro di violino (master of violin) at an orphanage called the Pio Ospedale della Pietà (Devout Hospital of Mercy) in Venice. While Vivaldi is most famous as a composer, he was regarded as an exceptional technical violinist as well. Life At the Conservatorio dell’Ospedale della Pietà However, the Emperor died soon after Vivaldi’s arrival, and Vivaldi himself died less than a year later in poverty.

After meeting the Emperor Charles VI, Vivaldi moved to Vienna, hoping for preferment. Vivaldi also had some success with expensive stagings of his operas in Venice, Mantuaand Vienna. Many of his compositions were written for the female music ensemble of the Ospedale della Pietà, a home for abandoned children where Vivaldi (who had been ordained as a Catholic priest) was employed from 1703 to 1715 and from 1723 to 1740. His best-known work is a series of violin concertos known as The Four Seasons.

He is known mainly for composing many instrumental concertos, for the violin and a variety of other instruments, as well as sacred choral works and more than forty operas. Born in Venice, he is recognized as one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his influence during his lifetime was widespread across Europe. 8)Īntonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678–28 July 1741) was an Italian Baroque composer, virtuoso violinist, teacher and cleric.

Antonio Vivaldi (engraving by François Morellon de La Cave (fr), from Michel-Charles Le Cène’s edition of Vivaldi’s Op. Vivaldi was a prolific composer and producer of opera and was very successful in his day, but his operatic compositions are not nearly as widely performed today as his concertos. Antonio Vivaldi was certainly a major composer of the late Baroque, but his enduring legacy is generally concentrated in a single genre: the concerto.

Vivaldi works