Table Of ContentPrologue The Rediscovery of Vivaldi I: Priest and Music Master Plates II: A Career in Opera III: 'L'Estro Armonico' IV: Violin Wizard V: 'The Four Seasons' VI: Venice, Mantua and Rome VII: The Church Music VIII: Patrons, Travels and the Giraud Sisters IX: Vivaldi and the Emperor Charles VI X: Goldoni and Vivaldi XI: Troubles in Ferrara Plates XII: The Last Journey: Death in Vienna Epilogue The Durazzo Connection Appendix I Vivaldi's Opera Productions Appendix II Vivaldian Ritornello Form Appendix III Bach's Arrangements Appendix IV Vivaldi's Published Collections Appendix V Kolneder on the Uffenbach Cadenza Appendix VI Vivaldi's Church Music Notes on the Text Select Bibliography Index Sources of Illustrations
SynopsisVivaldi boasted that he could compose a concerto faster than a scribe could copy one. Despite his prolificacy, The Four Seasons , and the majority of his already published work had fallen into obscurity by the time of his death in poverty in 1741. Most of his music-concertos, sonatas, operas, and sacral music-has been published only recently. Very little has been written on Vivaldi for the nonspecialist, especially in English. Landon rediscovers the composer in this accessible and musically informed biography while presenting documentation of the musician's life discovered after the Baroque revival in the 1930s. This book includes illustrations of eighteenth-century Venice and several newly translated letters, thoroughly evoking the style of the time and revealing some of the more personal aspects of Vivaldi's life. "Belongs on the shelf of every serious music student."- Kirkus "Gives a good feel for Vivaldi's life and times . . . and describes particularly well how Vivaldi has been revived."- Booklist "Robbins Landon is marvelously entertaining, extravagantly learned."- The Independent, Vivaldi boasted that he could compose a concerto faster than a scribe could copy one. Despite his prolificacy, The Four Seasons , and the majority of his already published work had fallen into obscurity by the time of his death in poverty in 1741. Most of his music-concertos, sonatas, operas, and sacral music-has been published only recently. Very little has been written on Vivaldi for the nonspecialist, especially in English. Landon rediscovers the composer in this accessible and musically informed biography while presenting documentation of the musician's life discovered after the Baroque revival in the 1930s. This book includes illustrations of eighteenth-century Venice and several newly translated letters, thoroughly evoking the style of the time and revealing some of the more personal aspects of Vivaldi's life. "Belongs on the shelf of every serious music student."-- Kirkus "Gives a good feel for Vivaldi's life and times . . . and describes particularly well how Vivaldi has been revived."-- Booklist "Robbins Landon is marvelously entertaining, extravagantly learned."-- The Independent