Composer
Antonio Vivaldi
The Baroque violinist-composer who made the concerto tell a story.
Antonio Vivaldi was a Venetian priest, virtuoso violinist, and prolific composer who spent much of his career teaching at a Venice orphanage for girls, writing a steady stream of music for its resident orchestra. He wrote hundreds of concertos, and did more than almost anyone to establish the concerto's signature format: a soloist set against the full ensemble, trading musical ideas in vivid contrast.
His most famous work by far is The Four Seasons, a set of four violin concertos, each one paired with a poem (possibly written by Vivaldi himself) describing the season it depicts. The music follows the poetry closely — you can hear birdsong, storms, and ice underfoot — making it one of the earliest and most successful examples of clearly programmatic (story-telling) instrumental music, well over a century before the Romantic-era symphonic poem made that approach fashionable again.
Vivaldi's music fell into obscurity for nearly two centuries after his death, and was only rediscovered and reassessed in the 20th century - he's now regarded as one of the most important and influential Baroque composers, especially for the concerto form.
Where to start listening: The Four Seasons - "Spring" in particular
- is the friendliest, most immediately melodic entry point into Baroque music on this entire site.