A Venetian composer and violinist best known for his concertos, above all The Four Seasons.
Antonio Vivaldi was a Venetian priest, violinist and composer, ordained in 1703 but soon devoting himself almost entirely to music. For much of his career he taught and wrote for the Ospedale della Pietà, a Venetian home for orphaned and abandoned girls whose musicians became famous across Europe. He was one of the most prolific and influential instrumental composers of the Baroque era.
Vivaldi wrote hundreds of concertos — most famously The Four Seasons, four violin concertos that paint spring, summer, autumn and winter in sound. He composed little for keyboard himself; pianists meet his music mainly through arrangements and transcriptions, a tradition that began in his own century, when Bach admired his concertos and reworked several of them for keyboard.
For a learner, a piano arrangement of a Vivaldi movement — the opening of “Spring” above all — is an inviting way to play music almost everyone recognises, with clear, driving rhythms and tunes that carry themselves. His writing prizes momentum and bright, simple outlines, so that even a simplified version feels complete.