Antonio Lucio Vivaldi “The Red Priest”was an Italian Baroque composer, priest, and violinist, born in Venice in 1678.
As far as violin virtuosos go, he was quite the legend. Most known in those ‘classical’ music circles for composing “The Four Seasons” but he was also a great writer who created almost 50 operas, more than 500 concertos and around 90 sonatas.
Not too shabby.
So how cool is it that lying hidden in a collection of manuscripts for 270 years was found two previously unheard violin sonatas. These works were found in a 180-page portfolio after it was donated to the Foundling Museum in London
This is really similar to finding two songs by The Beatles or The Sex Pistols only way way older.
Of course, this had to be authenticated and it has been by Vivaldi expert Michael Talbot, Liverpool Hope University’s visiting professor of music.
Quoting Talbot
“From their relatively simple technical demands, it appears the two sonatas were written by Vivaldi for amateurs,” he said.
The moral of this story is pretty much dont throw anything away. And should you ever buy a giant book of manuscripts from teh 1600’s make sure you really check whats in there cuz hell it could be a find like this. Not only for the obvious like lottery tickets or cash or uncashed checks but weird obscure sonata’s cuz those are a total cash cow too.
If you happen to wander in to Liverpool today, the sonatas are being performed for the first time ever by La Serenissima ensemble as part of the Cornerstone Festival at Liverpool Hope University’s Cornerstone Theatre.I doubt their amatuers though.