Evviva Vivaldi!

Until recent years, if the name of Antonio Vivaldi (circa 1678-1740) appeared on a concert program at all, it was usually linked by a hyphen to the name of Bach, who transcribed a goodly number of Vivaldi's works. Little was known about Venetian Vivaldi himself. The main facts: 1) he was a red-haired priest who had to stop saying Mass because of his choking attacks of asthma, 2) he traveled all over Europe as a violinist, and 3) he was "feeble and sick, yet lively as gunfire."

Now, since more Vivaldi scores have been discovered (latest count: 409 instrumental concerti, 136 pieces for chamber ensembles, 54 sacred choral works and 46 operas), the vigorous contrapuntal music of the red-haired priest is enjoying a boom.

Last week Manhattan concertgoers heard their first Vivaldi opera, performed by Thomas Scherman, his Little Orchestra (TIME, April 30, 1951) and soloists. Vivaldi's Juditha Triumphans, based on the story of Judith and Holofernes in the Apocrypha, was a delight to the ear throughout, if a little difficult to imagine as opera.

Listeners used to the blood & thunder accompaniments of Verdi, for instance, found Vivaldi's music often "lively as gunfire," but hardly theatrical. Holofernes got his head lopped off in a few bars of refined fiddling--where Verdi would have unleashed all the brass and tympani in the pit. And Judith was always genteel, a decapitator in old lace. Sung in Latin, the vocal lines were always elegant, sometimes floridly difficult.

Vivaldi, master violinist that he was, proved again that he wrote more beautifully for strings than any of his contemporaries, e.g., Bach and Handel. And his music is permeated with a sunny warmth unequaled by his northern competitors. The Herald Tribunes Virgil Thomson ended his review with a burst of continental enthusiasm. "Evviva Vivaldi! And let's have more of him." There is plenty more to hear, and the Vivaldi boom shows every sign of settling down into a thorough, long-range revival.

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