Antonio Vivaldi's nickname, "il prete rosso" (the red priest), tells us much about his character and music. Born in 1678 to one of the leading violinists of the famous St. Mark's Chapel in Venice, Vivaldi became known for his vanity, temper, and obsession with money - as well as for his intensely energized music that prefigures classical forms, romantic virtuosity, and 19th century program music.

Antonio was the eldest of the children born to Giovanni Vivaldi - a barber before he became a violinist - and Camillo Calichio, a tailor's daughter. At St. Mark's, Giovanni was engaged under the name Rossi, which suggests that red hair was a family trait. He undoubtedly was close to Antonio, with whom he lived in three different apartments in Venice between 1711 and 1736, the year of his death (only five years before Antonio). None of the other children became musicians, although Antonio's brother, Francesco, had an entrepreneurial spirit and was a paving contractor and publisher in addition to being a wigmaker.

From 1693 to 1703, Vivaldi received training as a priest. At least once during this period - in 1696 - he is known to have been engaged as an additional violinist at St. Marks. Although we don't know specifically of his harpsichord playing until much later, it is probable that he was also proficient on that instrument by this time as well. In September 1703, Vivaldi obtained his first official post as the "maestro di violino" for the Pio Ospedale della Pietà, one of four institutions in Venice devoted to the care of orphans and specializing in the musical training of the girls who showed aptitude.

Services at the Pietà more resembled concerts than religious occasions, and they were important events on the social calender for Venetian nobility and visitors. The charm of seeing and hearing a chorus and orchestra comprised solely of musically gifted young women was widely reputed in Venice and abroad, and therefore the musical training and repertoire had to be maintained at a consistently high level. Ironically, in 1709 Vivaldi's contract was not renewed, probably in the name of economy, because the level of the older girls he had trained made his own services unnecessary for the time being. During his lifetime in fact, it was not necessary to appoint any other outside violin teachers.

Vivaldi, meanwhile, tried to win more attention as a composer. His Op.1, a set of trio sonatas, was published in 1705. Op. 2, a set of violin sonatas, was dedicated in 1709 to Frederick IV of Denmark, who had attended a service under Vivaldi's direction at the Pietà in 1708. At this point Vivaldi was also beginning to write concertos that were widely circulated in manuscript. In 1711, he was voted back into his former post where he stayed for the next five years until being elevated to the position of "maestro di concerti."

In this year, Estienne Roger, the Amsterdam publisher, brought out Vivaldi's "L'estro harmonico," Op. 3, comprising 12 concertos arranged for varying groups of violins, and which was to become the most influential musical publication of its time. This was particularly true in Germany, where Bach transcribed several of them for keyboard, an indication of Vivaldi's importance in the development of the Italian side of Bach's own cosmopolitan style. Quantz, who first heard Vivaldi's concertos in 1714, gave him credit for having reformed the concerto along with Albinoni. In his writings, Quantz's proscribed formula for the concerto corresponds exactly to the typical Vivaldi practice.

The departure of the composer Gasparini, due to illness in 1713, gave Vivaldi the opportunity to write sacred music. The Pietà governors were so pleased with his efforts that they gave him a special payment of 50 ducats for "an entire mass, a vespers, an oratorio, and over 30 motets and other labors." During this decade, Vivaldi also entered the turbulent world of Italian opera.

In 1718, he began a period of traveling which included writing three operas for the successive Carnival seasons in Mantua. In Rome during the Carnival seasons of 1723 and 1724, three of his operas were performed and he was twice invited to play before the pope. In 1723, the governors of the Pietà requested that Vivaldi supply them with two concertos per month, revealing that, in spite of his travels and unavailability for teaching, Vivaldi was still considered an important asset of the Pietà.

It was around this time that Vivaldi's association with Anna Giraud began. She appeared on the opera stage and was also known as "Anna della Pietà." Anna was apparently a good actress although her voice was not strong. She and her sister, Paolina, became members of Vivaldi's entourage and there was a certain amount of gossip regarding their relationship to Vivaldi, despite his denials.

Meanwhile Vivaldi's fame spread and his Op. 8, "Il cimento dell'armonico e dell'inventione" appeared in 1725, with the first four concertos rather successfully portraying the seasons, to say the least. Other concerto opuses followed including the Op. 10 flute concertos and the string concertos of Op. 11 and 12. Vivaldi continued to travel widely and was given numerous honorary titles while continuing to be active in the ever dramatic world of opera as composer and impresario.

In 1737, he was involved in some wrangling over a singer's contract and the choice of operas in Ferrara. Vivaldi's less than elegant attempts to extract full payment and his relationship with Anna along with his refusal to say Mass, resulted in his being barred from Ferrara, which was a papal domain. Vivaldi went to Amsterdam and his absence from Italy contributed to some unsuccessful performances of his operas locally. By now, his favor with the Venetian public had waned and his relationship with the Pietà was strained. His last trip was to Vienna, perhaps to hear Anna in the opera at Graz. On July 28, 1741, he died in the house of the widow of a Viennese saddler where he was boarding. He was given a pauper's burial the same day, a sad ending for a man who had been so successful, but due to his profligate lifestyle according to contemporaneous accounts.

Today, Vivaldi's fame is particularly founded on his more than 500 concertos. After the 230 violin concertos, there are concertos for bassoon (Concerto in G- RV.495), cello, oboe (Concerto in F, RV.455: Allegro), flute, viola d'amore (Concerto in D, RV.392: Allegro), recorder, mandolin ( Concerto in C), and lute (Concerto in D, RV.93: Allegro), in addition to about 40 double concertos (Concerto for Two Trumpets in C: Allegro). He was the first composer to regularly use the ritornello form in fast movements and also to standardize the three movement scheme -fast, slow, fast- of the classical concerto. Today Vivaldi's best known vocal music outside of Italy are probably the Gloria, RV589, the Magnificat, RV610-611, and the oratorio Juditha Trumphans.

While French music of the Baroque period is ultimately centered around the dances of the court with a particular sensitivity to wind instruments, Italian music is more vocally and operatically oriented with the string family as the essential instrumental concern. In contrast to the delicate, introspective subtleties of French baroque music, with Vivaldi we hear the essential properties of the Italian Baroque. His strong, extroverted, and impassioned personality and emotions are embodied by energetic, motoric rhythms and clear harmonic progressions that use the repetitive phrases of sequential writing for their cumulative effect. Vivaldi's gift for endless invention within his strongly recognizable style is exemplified in the picturesque tone painting of his most famous legacy, "The Four Seasons." ("Winter" Concerto).