"I am not one who was born in the custody of wisdom. I am one who is fond of olden times and intense in quest of the sacred knowing of the ancients." Gustave Courbet

21 November 2010

Vivaldi, "Gloria"

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi composed this Gloria in Venice, probably in 1715, for the choir of the Ospedale della Pietà, an orphanage for girls (or more probably a home, generously endowed by the girls' "anonymous" fathers, for the illegitimate daughters of Venetian noblemen and their mistresses). The Ospedale prided itself on the quality of its musical education and the excellence of its choir and orchestra. Vivaldi, a priest, music teacher and virtuoso violinist, composed many sacred works for the Ospedale, where he spent most of his career, as well as hundreds of instrumental concertos to be played by the girls’ orchestra. This, his most famous choral piece, presents the traditional Gloria from the Latin Mass in twelve varied cantata-like sections.

Today Vivaldi is one of the most popular of all composers, who during his lifetime enjoyed considerable success and fortune, which he squandered through extravagance, and when he died in Vienna he was buried in a pauper’s grave. For two centuries after his death, the Gloria lay undiscovered until the late 1920s, when it was found buried among a pile of forgotten Vivaldi manuscripts. However, it was not performed until September 1939 in Siena in an edition by the composer Alfredo Casella. This was by no means an authentic edition (he described it as an "elaborazione”), as he embellished the original orchestration of trumpet, oboe, strings, and continuo, while reducing the role of the continuo, and cut sections from three movements. It was not until 1957 that the now familiar original version was published and given its first performance at the First Festival of Baroque Choral Music at Brooklyn College, NY.


Read the rest of the program notes here.

Vivaldi.

Concerto Italiano.

Rinaldo Alessandrini.

Sara Mingardo.

Gloria, indeed.


Et in terra pax ominibus











Thanks, Kurt.

2 comments:

John (that's Mr. Jefferson to you) said...

I sang this the year I spent "up east". My school got together with 5-6 other schools in the NY/MA/CN area and worked on it throughout the winter and spring. This is one of the most memorable times of my school career and I had a ball with this performance. I found the sheet music and words so I was able to try and sing along but I have gotten a little rusty in the 40 years that have passed. Thanks for this post, Rob.

Rob Firchau said...

Keep singing, buddy! Thanks.