Vivaldi's sacred music combines tender and somber passages with highly operatic movements, showcasing both cantabile expressiveness and colorful virtuosity.
Composer Biography
Vivaldi's association with the Ospedale della Pietà, where girls were trained in music, continued intermittently throughout his life, including a contract to compose two new concertos every month from 1723.
Compositional Technique
Vivaldi's G minor Magnificat exists in four versions, with the earliest represented by a copy in a Cistercian monastery in Bohemia, indicating its wide circulation.
Composer Biography
Vivaldi, a prolific opera composer with about fifty operas to his name, died in Vienna in relative poverty in 1741, despite having once been worth 50,000 ducats a year.
Composer Biography
Antonio Vivaldi, known as the 'red priest' due to his hair color, was ordained in 1703 and became a violin-master at the Ospedale della Pietà, a charitable institution for orphaned girls.
Composition History
Vivaldi's sacred music for the Pietà generally dates from two periods: 1715-1717, after Francesco Gasparini's departure, and 1737-1739, when the maestro di coro position was again vacant.
Performer Biography
Kevin Mallon, the Irish musician and conductor of the Aradia Ensemble, trained at prestigious institutions and performed as a violinist with orchestras like the Hallé and BBC Philharmonic.
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