Antonio Vivaldi
Gloria Vivaldi
Domine ad adiuvandum me festina RV 593
Magnificat g-moll RV 610
Gloria d-dur RV 589
Teresa Marut – soprano
Zuzanna Nalewajek – mezzo-soprano
Vocal Ensemble of the Warsaw Chamber Opera
Period Instrument Orchestra Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense (MACV)
Conductor
Krzysztof Kusiel-Moroz
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They called him the “Red Priest.” He composed several hundred pieces (500 concerts!) during his rather long life (1678-1741, 63 years). He also copied many works, but he only rewrote his own music (though other great composers, like Johann Sebastian Bach, copied his works). During his lifetime, he was highly esteemed as a violinist, and today he is recognized as one of the greatest composers of the Baroque period. He was associated for most of his tumultuous career with Venice (at the age of 25, he began working as a violin teacher at the girls’ orphanage Ospedale della Pietà, for which he composed until death); he suffered from poverty in Vienna towards the end of his life.
The concert program GLORIA VIVALDI – part of the 12th Baroque Opera Festival, will feature three works by Antonio Vivaldi: the motet “Domine ad adiuvandum me festina” RV 593, “Magnificat in G minor” RV 610, and “Gloria in D major” RV 589.
As a priest and music director of the Ospedale della Pietà, Vivaldi composed a considerable amount of sacred music for various musical ensembles – the pieces presented at the concert come from these collections. The Psalm 69 “Domine ad adiuvandum me festina” is written for soprano, double choir, two oboes, strings, and basso continuo. The canticle “Magnificat” served as the basis for several works created between 1716 and 1719. According to musicologist Michael Talbot, Vivaldi wrote the earliest version in G minor for the orphanage around 1715, and soon after transcribed it for the Cistercian monastery in Osek.
It is believed that he composed three settings of the hymn “Gloria in excelsis Deo” – two have survived in their entirety, and the “Gloria in D major” RV 589 is one of the composer’s most famous sacred works. It was probably created around 1715-1716 (similar to RV 588) and owes much of its great popularity to its inclusion in film soundtracks, such as “Runaway Train” (1985) directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, “Shine” (1996) directed by Scott Hicks about the pianist David Helfgott (first part), and “The Hunter” (2011) directed by Daniel Nettheim, starring Willem Dafoe.