ANTONIO - Venetian Baroque Music by Vivaldi, Lotti & Caldara

Three Antonios...

Antonio Lotti (1667-1740) captivated audiences with his expressive, pleasing melodies far beyond Italy's borders. In Venice, Lotti studied under the great Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-1690), who likely also taught Vivaldi, and secured a position at St. Mark's Basilica, where he later advanced to maestro di capella.

Scholars believe that Lotti's sacred compositions for countertenor and strings were written for one of Venice's charitable hospitals (Ospedale dei Mendicanti or Ospedale degli Incurabili). They thus emerge from the same charitable-musical context as Vivaldi's "Nisi Dominus": the dramatically virtuosic psalm setting "Nisi Dominus" RV 608 by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), the "Red Priest," was likely composed in his youth for the orphan girls of Ospedale della Pietà, where Vivaldi served as both priest and music teacher. The fact that the hospital produced both outstanding singers and instrumentalists is reflected in the work's elaborate and demanding composition. Particularly striking is the setting of Gloria, which, contrary to convention, forgoes jubilation and creates an especially intimate moment. Here Vivaldi employs the rarely heard viola d'amore.

The vocal compositions are complemented by two concertos by Vivaldi and orchestral introductions to oratorios by the renowned Venetian composer Antonio Caldara (1670-1736). Like his two namesakes, Caldara received his musical training from Giovanni Legrenzi in Venice. His oeuvre of over 3400 compositions includes numerous Italian-language oratorios, whose artfully crafted introductions and symphonies, with their melodic polyphony, testify to Caldara's Venetian style.