Monks, music and Mussolini

Available for over a year

In his day, Antonio Vivaldi was well-known as a composer of operas, concertos and choral works, influencing the likes of J. S. Bach. But music careers can collapse quickly and when Vivaldi died in 1741, penniless, so did his music. Incredibly, the man and his work only became widely known again after the Second World War, with The Four Seasons leading the charge. In this series of The Essay, celebrating 300 years since The Four Seasons was published, Phil Hebblethwaite traces Vivaldi’s return to fame from the beginning of the 20th century to the modern day. 2. Monks, music and Mussolini Phil travels to Italy to the site of perhaps the greatest musicology find of the 20th century. Susan Orlando, artistic director of the Vivaldi Edition, explains how the discovery of a huge trove of Vivaldi manuscripts near Turin in the 1920s became news across the world, but also led the once-lost Venetian composer to become tied up in modern-day nationalist politics. Presenter and writer: Phil Hebblethwaite Script editor: Jo Glanville Producer: Joanna Jolly Series editor: Kirsten Lass Mixer: Jon Calver Commissioning editor: Matthew Dodd A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 3