Born: 4 March
1678, Venice, Italy Died: 28 July 1741, Vienna, Austria
Vivaldi, Antonio
Among the most important composers
in the history of violin. He composed over
200 violin concerti,
and was one of the deliverers of change in the concerto
- until then, the "concerto grosso"
faced a small soloist band with the entire orchestra, and the concerto
was based on their combination. Vivaldi was
one of the first to deploy a single solo instrument against the orchestra,
which would become widely accepted later on.
For example, he wrote a Mandolin Concerto.
His
work "The Four Seasons",
describing the seasons of the year in four separate solo-concerti, is very
popular.
After his death, Vivaldi was almost
forgotten, but in the course of studying Bach's
work, researchers found that Bach copied many
sections of Vivaldi's work, as customary in
their time, and so many of his works were studied, exposed and became familiar
to the concerts audience.
Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" (Spring) - Gidon Kremer leads the English Chamber Orchestra
