Vivaldi was employed for most of his working life by the Ospedale della Pietà. 3 for example, he also wrote many works which sound like five-finger exercises for students. Though he wrote many fine and memorable concertos, such as the Four Seasons and the Op. In any event he had become a priest against his own will, perhaps because in his day training for the priesthood was often the only possible way for a poor family to obtain free schooling. It is also possible that Vivaldi was simulating illness - there is a story that he sometimes left the altar in order to quickly jot down a musical idea in the sacristy. Though ordained a priest in 1703, according to his own account, within a year of being ordained Antonio Vivaldi no longer wished to celebrate mass because of physical complaints ('tightness of the chest') which pointed to angina pectoris, asthmatic bronchitis, or a nervous disorder.

The Four Seasons, a series of four violin concerti, is his best-known work and a highly popular Baroque piece. Antonio Lucio Vivaldi, nicknamed il Prete Rosso ('The Red Priest'), was a Venetian priest and Baroque music composer, as well as a famous virtuoso violinist he was born and raised in the Republic of Venice.

Vivaldi biography