Visiting Venice in 1715, German traveller JFA von Uffenbach recorded his impressions of Vivaldi’s violin playing. Rousseau’s visit would have been made a few years after Vivaldi’s death other travellers who did get to see the composer in the flesh commented on the passionate temperament of the “red-haired priest” ( il prete rosso) who directed proceedings.
from which I am of opinion no heart is secure.” Rousseau also lamented the fact that the musicians were generally hidden from view behind a metal screen: “What vexed me was the iron grate, which suffered nothing to escape but sounds, and concealed from me the angels of which they were worthy.” What did Von Uffenbach mean when he says he was frightened by Vivaldi’s playing? “The richness of the art, the exquisite taste of the vocal part, the excellence of the voices, the justness of the execution, everything in these delightful concerts concurs to produce an impression. In perhaps the most famous account, Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his Confessions described the music he heard there as “voluptuous and affecting”. The Sunday concerts he staged were a major attraction both for the Venetian nobility and the many foreign visitors who, then as now, flocked to the city.Ī French visitor, Charles de Brosses, wrote about the attractions of the performers: “There is nothing so charming as to see a young and pretty nun in her white robe, with a sprig of pomegranate blossoms over her ear, leading the orchestra and beating time with all the grace and precision imaginable.” This was a theme repeated by many of the men who attended concerts at the Pietà. The wonderful music he wrote to be heard there was all performed by female musicians, and that includes his sacred vocal music, in which every part was sung by women. In fact, the modern word “conservatoire”, meaning an academy of music, derives from the Italian conservatorio, meaning orphanage.Īntonio Vivaldi joined the Pietà in 1703 as a violin teacher, and worked there for the best part of 30 years as de facto director of music and composer in residence.
In Italy, however, there was a strong emphasis on vocational training in music.
Like Captain Coram’s London foundling hospital, Italian orphanages were committed to providing an education for the children in their care. It still stands today, although the niche in one of its walls, known as the scaffetta, where unwanted babies could be anonymously deposited, is gone. T he Ospedale della Pietà was a convent, an orphanage and also a music school in Venice.
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