Autumn - Scandal

Donald Macleod explores the autumn of Vivaldi’s career as scandal threatens to engulf him.

As performer, composer, impresario, musical director, and teacher, Antonio Vivaldi was a key figure in the musical life of Baroque Italy. Thanks to his set of Concertos “The Four Seasons”, he remains one of the most famous and best loved composers today. This week, Donald Macleod puts these four celebrated concertos front and centre as he also explores the four seasons of Vivaldi’s own life, lingering a little in his summer. We'll follow him from the start of his musical story, teaching at the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice, through his time as an opera composer, catering to the crowds who swarmed to Venice during carnival season, to his successes away from Venice. Vivaldi had many highs in his career, however he also had some difficult low points, finding himself embroiled in scandal and accused of immoral behaviour, before dying in poverty in a foreign city – his star having fallen from favour.

In Thursday’s episode, Donald finds Vivaldi embroiled in scandal, accused of an inappropriate relationship with his pupil and protégé, Anna Giró, and of living with both her and her sister. These rumours were not the first time he had been treated as a suspicious character, but this time the humiliation of the accusations was also compounded by severe financial implications for the composer.

Dorilla - Sinfonia
Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin
Jean-Guihen Queyras, cello
Georg Kallweit, conductor

Violin Concerto in F major, RV 293 Op.8 no 3 “Autumn”
Rachel Podger, violin
Brecon Baroque

Dorilla in Tempe, RV709 – Act II, Scene 8: “Arsa da rai cocenti”
Sonia Prina, contralto (Eudamia)
I Barocchisti
Diego Fasolis, director

Griselda, RV 718 – “Ho il cor gia lacero”; “No, non tanta crudelta”; Terzetto “Non piu regina”; “Son infelice tanto”
Marie-Nicole Lemieux, contralto (Griselda)
Stefano Ferrari, tenor (Gualtiero)
Veronica Cangemi, soprano (Constanza)
Ensemble Matheus
Jean-Christophe Spinosi, conductor

Farnace, RV 711 – “Forse, o caro, in questi accenti...”
Sara Mingardo, contralto (Tamiri)
Le Concert des Nations
Jordi Savall, conductor

Beatus Vir, RV 795 – II. Gloria et divitiae
Chœur de Chambre de Namur
Les Agrémens
Leonardo García-Alarcón, conductor