He was soon followed by the Londoner John Walsh, well-known as a patron of Handel. In 1711, Estienne Roger, the renowned Amsterdam printer, took over the publication of Vivaldi’s works. The first publication of Vivaldi’s music was printed by the Venetian Giuseppe Sala in 1705 and, in keeping with the practice, contained 12 trio sonatas. Nowadays, Vivaldi’s works are prized possessions of the libraries in Dresden and Prague, as well as in the lower Franconian valley, Eisenstadt, and London. These events are all the more remarkable since the Italian composer’s works were widely disseminated throughout Europe during his own lifetime.

Since then, however, they have become increasingly enthusiastic, a development that allows us to speak of a virtual “Vivaldi Renaissance” today. Among musicians, interest in his compositions grew slowly at first. Change came about as scholars began researching the extant musical sources. Nevertheless, Vivaldi’s music - his extensive oeuvre of chamber music, symphonic works, operas and sacred pieces - was forgotten and remained so until the beginning of this century. The Venetian dramatist Carlo Goldoni, who occasionally collaborated with Vivaldi, tells us in his autobiography published in 1761 that the composer’s achievements were significant for the musical life of his home town. Today, we know that 10 of Vivaldi’s 220 violin concertos served as models for Bach’s piano and organ transcriptions. 3, 1711) that had recently been published as a study piece and arranged the entire work for piano”. In 1802, Johann Nikolaus Forkel wrote in his biography of Bach that the composer used “Vivaldi’s violin concerto (op. For more than 150 years, only a handful of lexicographers, biographers and musicians preserved the reputation of the composer known as “Prete Rosso” (the red priest) on account of his red hair and clerical order. His Italian contemporary, Antonio Vivaldi (1678 – 1741), met another fate however.

Such was the case with Johann Sebastian Bach. In other cases, however, a small group of enthusiasts kept the memory of a composer’s works and contributions alive in the minds of a few, until interest in him was revived. Thus, many a composer who was extremely popular and celebrated during his lifetime has been so completely forgotten since his death that he is only known today to music historians. The course of music history has taken surprising and, occasionally, truly strange turns.

Vivaldi works