![]() ![]() What remains unquestionable is that Vivaldi's genius can be compared to only a handful of others - such as Paganini, Liszt and, indeed, The Beatles. About Vivaldi's death in poverty in Vienna, however, White remains mysterious. Antonio learned everything he knew about business matters from him - and the composer was indeed "a clever, cunning old fox!". His father was his prop and stay and mentor." What's more, Giovanni Battista Vivaldi was a sharp-minded businessman. ![]() Vivaldi lived with his family all his life and, says White, "never took a step without his daddy behind him. ![]() There was one more crucial presence in Vivaldi's life: his father. Becoming a priest was an arduous 10-year process, from which many candidates dropped out. Instead, White suggests, Vivaldi's priesthood was in fact a crucial part of his psyche. The picture she paints of him is nevertheless just as extraordinary. But White has become convinced that many of the more lurid suppositions about Vivaldi are far removed from the truth. And just like Mozart, he died a pauper in Vienna. Meanwhile Vivaldi is thought to have had a liaison with a young contralto, Anna Girò, for whom he wrote some of his most beautiful arias. He was afflicted all his life with a peculiar ailment, thought to be a form of asthma, but travelled widely despite this and when he met the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, it was reported that the monarch talked more to him in two weeks than to all his ministers in two years. As music teacher at the Pietà , he famously transformed its young women into musical virtuosi. Though an ordained priest, he was also an entre-preneur, making - and losing - a fortune across his 63 years. The red-haired son of a musician at the Basilica of San Marco, Vivaldi was among the most ground-breaking composers of his day, and an equally gifted violinist. Vivaldi's life history, as it is often told, would not seem out of place in the racier kind of historical novel. ![]()
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