Antonio Vivaldi was an Italian priest and composer. He influenced the evolution of Baroque music. The author of the famous The Four Seasons concert series was born 337 years ago, on 4^th March, 1678. Until 1739 (two years before his death), the Venetian composed more than 50 operas, countless concertos, sonatas, oratorios and symphonies, published in twelve collections. There are many unknown things about the artist's career; one thing is certain though, that Vivaldi decided early in life to devote himself to the church. His musical talent was encouraged and polished by his father, who was a violinist; Antonio was the only one amongst 8 brothers who was offered music education.

In 1703 Antonio Lucio Vivaldi became a violin teacher at Ospela della Pietà, one of four Venetian orphanages, where he stayed (with short lapses when he was traveling abroad) until 1740. Even though the musician wrote stage works with enthusiasm, the instrumental concerto was, from the beginning, the center of his creation, there are over 500 opuses of this kind.

Like many other composers of the time, after his death, in 1741, Vivaldi became unknown, his work being considered obsolete. Only after the rediscovery of Bach's creation, after more than a century, the world became aware of the artistic spirit of Antonio Vivaldi. The Musicologist Alberto Gentili is the one who, at the beginning of the 20th century, rediscovered and brought to light many of Vivaldi's opuses that were previously thought to have been lost.

Here are some less known things about Antonio Vivaldi:

-Vivaldi had red hair, very uncommon in Italy at the time. Though he used to wear a wig, the composer was known as «The Red Priest».

-In 1715 the composer wrote an opera called «Arsilda, regina di Ponto», the main subject of this opera was the love story between two women - Arsilda and Lisea. It was censored, but Vivaldi somehow managed to perform it after a year.

-Proof of the composer's innovations is the pamphlet «The Fashionable Theatre», appearing in 1720, in which Vivaldi is denounced for his progressive style. The author of the pamphlet was Benedetto Marcello, and even though the document does not mention Vivaldi directly, it shows an angel wearing a priest's hat and playing the violin; it also includes the word ALDIVIVA, an anagram of A. Vivaldi.

-Many of his works were written for the girls of the Pietà orphanage and performed by them for the first time. It's also the case of «Juditha triumpahns», where all the parts were performed by the girls of the Pietà, both the female and male roles.

-Johann Sebastian Bach was one of Vivaldi's music admirers. The German composer learned a lot by transcribing some of the opuses of the Italian artist.

-Vivaldi performed for Pope Benedict XIII in 1722, when he was invited to Rome.

-Despite his great success, the final years of Vivaldi's life found him in financial difficulties; Vivaldi chose to sell off sizeable numbers of his manuscripts in order to support himself. The artist died of an internal infection and he was buried in Vienna, in the cemetery of the poor. At his funeral, Joseph Haydn, who was nine years old, sang in the choir.

Every day, from Monday to Friday, between 20^th-24^th April you are invited, starting at 12:00, to learn more about the life and work of Antonio Vivaldi. The musician is 'The Composer of the Week' on Arpeggio.