Discovering the Rediscovery of Antonio Vivaldi

DDISCOVERINGISCOVERING TTHEHE RREDISCOVERYEDISCOVERY OOFF AANTONIONTONIO VVIVALDIIVALDI MILES DAYTO N FISH Miles Dayton Fish Professor of Music Northwest Arkansas Community College Director NWACC Chamber Singers milesfi [email protected] ith more than two thousand recordings1 and myriad W conductors programing his music worldwide, Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) is one of the most performed composers in music history. A violinist, concertmaster, and teacher himself, Vivaldi composed many instrumental works, most notably The Four Seasons, and was a major contributor to the development of the concerto. His many sacred and secular works include the Stabat Mater, Magnifi cat, and Gloria,2 arguably his most famous choral work. It is hard to believe that until the 1950s, Vivaldi and his music were virtually unknown to the concert-going public. This article recounts the true story of the rediscovery of Vivaldi—from the uncovering of hundreds of compositions once thought lost to the quest to bring those compositions to the forefront of classical repertoire. Contained in the following pages are the author’s personal photographs, including images from the Italian National University Library in Turin where the Vivaldi Turin manuscripts are located and images from the library archives of the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena. It is the author’s hope that scholars of choral music will enjoy rediscovering Vivaldi in this unique narrative format that begins with an accidental discovery that was two hundred years in the making. CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 55 Number 10 19 DDISCOVERINGISCOVERING TTHEHE RREDISCOVERYEDISCOVERY OOFF AANTONIONTONIO VVIVALDIIVALDI AAnn AAccidentalccidental DisDisccovery—overy— sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth decline, and Venetian musical tastes centuries. The monks had unknowingly were rapidly changing. By the mid-1730s, TTurin,urin, 11926926 sent Gentili one of the greatest musico- Vivaldi was out of money. His operas In 1926, Alberto Gentili, professor of logical discoveries of all time. had ceased to attract Italian audiences; music history at the University of Turin, his music was not in style and therefore was contacted by Luigi Torri, director no longer in demand, so concerto sales of the Turin National University Library HHistoricalistorical Background—Background— to wealthy European visitors were not (Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria di SSettingetting tthehe VVivaldiivaldi StageStage the prime income source they had Torino), concerning volumes of old mu- once been. His twenty-fi ve-year affi lia- sic manuscripts that had been recently At the height of his career in the tion with Teatro Sant’Angelo, the opera discovered at the San Carlo Salesian 1720s, Antonio Vivaldi was the arche- house on the Grand Canal near the Monastery in Monferrato near Turin. The type of a successful Venetian musician Rialto Bridge, ended. In 1740, his con- monastery was considering selling the entrepreneur. Born in a low station, he tract with Venice’s prestigious Ospedale manuscripts to antique dealers, and the became a priest and advanced his and della Pietà—where he had taught, con- rector, Monsignore Federico Emanuel, his family’s standing in Venice—a cultural ducted, and composed on and off for solicited the Turin Library to assist in epicenter that was one of the world’s almost forty years—was not renewed. estimating their worth. Crates of the wealthiest, most powerful, and most In addition to professional devastations, monastery’s manuscripts were shipped visited cities.3 He remained a priest all there occurred a personal tragedy that to Professor Gentili for his evaluation. of his life, although a non-practicing one, was even greater: Vivaldi’s father—his In the fall of 1926, the crates arrived. and he carried his priestly “red hair” fi rst music teacher, sometime copyist, Upon opening, Gentili found hundreds nickname “Il Prete Rosso.” It is believed mentor, traveling companion, and avid of Vivaldi manuscripts in bound volumes that his musician father, Giovanni Battista supporter—died of unknown causes on fi lled with concertos, operas, sonatas, Vivaldi, was also a redhead nicknamed May 14, 1736.6 and sacred choral works. This included “Battista Rossi”4; since Vivaldi and his Vivaldi’s artistic and fi nancial pros- an abundance of Vivaldi autographs. father remained close throughout their pects were bleak in Venice, and in (Photo 1) Up until that time, Vivaldi’s lifetimes, the shared nickname seems 1740 he moved to Vienna. Possibly he works appeared to have mostly disap- especially endearing. Vivaldi was also a relocated to regain the patronage of peared after his death in 1741. In ad- successful musician, composer, teacher, Emperor Charles VI; however, he most dition to the Vivaldi cache, there were opera impresario, and, for a while at likely moved to reestablish his career in works by Tuscan composer Alessandro least, an astute businessman.5 opera.7 Soon after Vivaldi arrived in Vi- Stradella (1639-1682) and manuscripts, Economic conditions in 1730s Venice, enna, Charles VI died an untimely death printed music, and autographs from the however, were in a state of continuing from eating poisonous mushrooms,8 Photo 1. Gloria manuscript autograph. All photos in this article credit Miles Dayton Fish. 20 CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 55 Number 10 and Vivaldi’s chances for royal patronage hospital burial ground.9 After his death, ice in 1716-1717 while accompanying died with him. More adverse to Vivaldi’s some private collectors possessed a Prince-Elector Friedrich Augustus II career than the emperor’s death was few Vivaldi instrumental works that of Saxony and Poland, Johann Georg the offi cial royal mourning observance: had been published during his lifetime, Pisendel—Dresden court violinist and opera performance was banned for a including The Four Seasons, but it was future court concertmaster—met year. Thus, when Charles VI was buried, believed that the main body of work Antonio Vivaldi. Pisendel was in Venice Vivaldi’s chance to jumpstart his opera that had been Vivaldi’s was forever lost. off and on for almost two years, and he career was also buried. In 1741, just a A century later, however, a sizable and Vivaldi established a strong student- year after arriving in Vienna, Vivaldi died collection of Vivaldi manuscripts was teacher relationship during that time.10 at the age of sixty-three. He received discovered in a once-forgotten cabinet Pisendel took violin and composition a modest funeral at St. Stephen’s Ca- at the Hofkirche Cathedral in Dresden, lessons from Vivaldi, and some Pisendel thedral and was interred in the nearby Germany. On an extended trip to Ven- manuscript pages show markings in Viv- VVivaldiivaldi AArticlerticle TimelineTimeline 11678678 – Vivaldi born 11926926 – Monks at the Turin Monastery send 11938938 – Olga Rudge establishes Centro di Vivaldi manuscripts to Professor Alberto Studi Vivaldiani 11716716 – Vivaldi meets Dresden violinist Jo- Gentili hann Georg Pisendel in Venice SSeptembereptember 116-21,6-21, 11939939 – Vivaldi Festival 11927927 – Roberto Foà purchases and do- Week in Siena 11717717 – Pisendel returns to Dresden with nates Vivaldi Turin manuscripts to the Turin more than 40 Vivaldi instrumental works Library in memory of his deceased infant SSeptembereptember 227,7, 11939939 – Warsaw surrenders son, Mauro to Germany in WWII 11774411 – Vivaldi dies and his personal manuscripts are sold to Venetian collector Jacopo 11927927 – The second half of the Durazzo JJuneune 11940940 – The Turin Library is damaged Soranzo Vivaldi manuscripts are discovered in the in air raids possession of Giuseppe Maria Durazzo 11755755 – Pisendel dies and his library is stored DDecemberecember 11942-April942-April 11943943 – Historical in a large cabinet at Dresden’s Catholic 11930930 – Giuseppe Maria gives permission documents and music manuscripts are Hofkirche to sell his manuscripts to the Turin Library moved from the Turin Library to the Castle of Montiglio d’Asti 11761761 – Jacopo Soranzo dies and his collec- 11930930 – Filippo Giordano purchases tion of Vivaldi manuscripts is divided Durazzo manuscripts and donates the col- 11945945 – Manuscripts at the Castle of Monti- lection to the Turin Library glio d’Asti are returned to the Turin Library LLateate 11700s700s – Abbot Matteo Luigi Canonici reassembles the Vivaldi manuscripts and OOctoberctober 330,0, 11930930 – The Vivaldi collection 11945945 – Dresden is bombed and some sells the collection to Count Giacomo is complete Vivaldi manuscripts are damaged Durazzo 11933933 – Olga Rudge begins working for 11947947 – Italian Antonio Vivaldi Institute is 11794794 – Count Durazzo dies, and the Count Guido Chigi Saracini at the Acca- founded in Venice by Antonio Fanna Vivaldi manuscripts are moved from Venice demia Musicale Chigiana to the Durazzo villa in Genoa DDecemberecember 331,1, 11947947 – Louis Kaufman debuts 11935-1936935-1936 – Olga Rudge travels to Turin a portion of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons at 11860860 – Pisendel’s Vivaldi orchestral manu- to examine and catalogue the Vivaldi Carnegie Hall scripts are discovered in Dresden and manuscripts moved to the SLUB Dresden 11951951 – Kaufman launches a series of all- 11938938 – The Durazzo stipulation of “no Vivaldi concerts 11893893 – The Durazzo collection is divided practice/no performance” is lifted between two Durazzo brothers 22015015 – Vivaldi continues to be one of the 11938938 – Ezra Pound transcribes microfilms of most performed and recorded composers 11922922 – Marcello Durazzo dies and leaves the Vivaldi manuscripts

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