10 things you never knew about Vivaldi...

1.Vivaldi died a pauper in Vienna and was buried in an unmarked grave

2. His relationship with the Board of Directors of the Ospedale della Pieta (the orphanage in which he worked) was notoriously tense. The Board took a vote every year on whether a teacher should be allowed to remain and Vivaldi's support was very rarely unanimous. In fact, in 1709 the vote went 7 to 6 against him, but after a year, the Ospedale asked him back again.

3. Vivaldi's father Giovanni Battista Vivaldi was a barber, as well as a professional violinist.

4. In fact Vivaldi's father may have been a composer too. As, in 1689 an opera titled La Fedelta sfortunata was composed and is attributed to Giovanni Battista Rossi. (Rossi is Italian for 'red' and may have referred to the colour of his father's hair, which must have been a notable trait of the family).

5. Vivaldi was regarded not only as an exceptional composer, but also an outstanding violinist. The German architect Johann Friedrich Armand von Uffenbach said of Vivaldi's violin playing 'Vivaldi played a solo accompaniment excellently, and at the conclusion he added a free fantasy (an improvised cadenza) which absolutely astounded me, for it is hardly possible that anyone has ever played, or will play, in such a fashion.'

6. The inspiration for the Four Seasons was probably the countryside around Mantua, where he has been appointed Maestro di Cappella at the court of Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt (Governor of Mantua).

7. There was something of a scandal over his relationship with a young aspiring singer Anna Tessieri Giro, who was his student, protegee and favourite Prima Donna. There was much speculation about the nature of their relationship, although Vivaldi obstinately denined any romantic attachment between them to his patron Bentivoglio in a letter dated 16th Nov 1737. 

8. In 1715 Vivaldi planned to present his opera Arsilda regina di Ponto (RV700), but the state censor banned any performance of it as the main character Arsilda falls in love with another woman disguised as a man. However, Vivaldi managed to overturn the ban the following year and  it would go on to be a resounding success.

9. Vivaldi was very sickly and suffered with what was described at the time as strettezza di petto (tightness of the chest) and is probably what we now know as asthma. This prevented him, despite being a priest, from saying mass as he was unable to speak for any length of time without becoming breathless.

10. Only 3 portraits of the great composer are known to have survived. Arguably the best and most well-known is an oil painting found in the Liceo Musical of Bologna, which shows Vivaldi's red hair peeping out from beneath his blonde wig (see image above).

A Day in the Life of (1)

We thought it might be nice for our audience to know a bit more about the running of Southern Sinfonia.  So, we've opened a new area on the website called 'A Day in the Life of', where we'll post the typical day-to-day activities of a different member of the team every month. The first one is Eileen Forsey, our Marketing Co-ordinator: 


10am Part of my role is to co-ordinate Southern Sinfonia’s marketing activities, so my day always begins with the update of our Facebook, Twitter and Flickr pages, as well as our News feed. Related to this is the Southern Sinfonia website, which I am also responsible for. The website is essential for communicating with our audience and Friends, so I ensure it is as up-to-date, interesting and visually-stimulating as possible, in order that regular visitors don’t get bored with the same information and images.

11am I also do a lot of work with our Concert Operations Manager Louisa Portal. As part of this, Louisa and I send out the music for all of our concerts to our musicians, so that they can practise it before the rehearsal. We don’t ever send out the original music, as this has a horrible tendency of getting lost or misplaced, but instead use a file-sharing website called Dropbox. Dropbox is great because not only is it free, but it’s also far more eco-friendly than sending out photocopies of the music as we did in the past. So, once we have sorted the music into sections, I upload it all to Dropbox and then invite the orchestra to view and download it.

12.30pm I also have a lot of contact with the local media, especially Trist Lee Arts Editor of the Newbury Weekly News. As part of this I write all the press releases we send out to local newspapers, radio stations and magazines. Press releases can be difficult to write; so I always make sure that after I’ve written one I go off and do something else for a few hours and then come back to it with fresh eyes.

1.30pm While my press release is having a bit of a rest, I use the intervening period to email as many local magazines and publications as possible with information about our upcoming concerts. I’ve been trying to build up our relationships with these publications recently, as I think that communicating via local channels is really important.

2pm The orchestra often performs at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. It’s an amazing venue, but there is also quite a lot of behind-the-scenes admin that needs doing before the performance. Because it’s a royal residence, security is understandably tight. Therefore, it’s my job to ensure the whole orchestra provides any information the security team at the castle needs, e.g. passport photos, date-of-birth, country of origin, current address etc. This can take a while, and usually involves a number of pretty interesting photos, but it’s definitely worth it in the end.

3pm Now I can come back to my press release. If it looks and reads well, I’ll take it to our MD Kay Lawrence to sign off. If she likes it, then I can send it out. I make sure that the press releases are tailored to the interests of the media I am sending them to. So this might require a bit of tweaking or the addition of a few paragraphs depending on who I am contacting.

3.15pm Southern Sinfonia also has a blog, which I am responsible for and update as often as possible. The posts provide an insight into the day-to-day running and behind-the-scenes activities of the orchestra. Posts don’t take long to write and are great for keeping up the level of interaction with our audience between concerts and letting them see what it’s really like to run an orchestra.

4.00pm Home time!

Fitzwilliam Cafe Concert Programme

Last Friday (20th January) saw our first Café Concert of 2012- The Fitzwilliam Duo, featuring Colin Scobie (violin) and Heather Tuach (cello). Heather will be a familiar face for all those who come to our Main Concerts, as she heads up our celli section. Colin is the newest member of the Fitzwilliam Quartet, following the retirement of their second violinist of 37 years Jonathan Sparey, and he currently plays a violin from Jonathan’s own collection.

As mentioned above, the duo played a varied repertoire that ranged from Bach, to Bartok, to Kodaly. We had a number of audience members approach us about the pieces they played, so in response to this we will post the Cafe Concert programmes after they take place, so all those who came can find out exactly what it is they heard.

Here’s the programme for The Fitzwilliam Duo’s Café Concert:

'Methodical' Sonata in A Major - Georg Philipp Telemann

Two-Part Inventions - Johann Sebastian Bach

Hungarian Folk Melodies - Béla Bartok

Duo Op. 7 - Zoltan Kodaly

Passacaglia - Johan Halvorson

For more information about upcoming Café Concerts, please visit our website.

Fitzwilliam Kicks Off Cafe Concerts for 2012

We’ve just had our first Café Concert of 2012 and you’ll be pleased to know that it was amazing. With the Café Concerts we try and showcase as much talent from across the musical spectrum as possible and this lunchtime was no exception.

The Fitzwilliam Duo opened our Spring season for us with a beautiful programme to include Bach, Kodaly, Bartok and Halvorsen. The Duo was made up of the famous quartet’s cellist Heather Tuach (who heads up Southern Sinfonia’s celli) and violinist Colin Scobie (the most recent addition to the quartet). We particularly enjoyed the Kodaly piece.

Lots of our usual friends were there, but we were also really pleased to see lots of new faces as well.

We’ll post some more detailed information about what they played as well as some photos of them in action next week…so watch this space.

Out & About in Newbury

Tuesday and Wednesday of this week (10^th & 11^th Jan) saw Southern Sinfonia’s crack team of leaflet distributers out and about in Newbury doing what they do best…distributing leaflets.

We’ve gone for a Concert Card this season, rather than a brochure, because it’s more environmentally-friendly and is also far more handbag/ pocket/ fridge-friendly because of its size. (It’s only A6- i.e. the size of a postcard). Our lovely lime green Concert Cards outline all of our local events up till April and offer an exclusive discount of 10% on tickets for our Main Concerts when you buy your tickets in advance.

So, equipped with a boot-load of these, Eileen (Southern Sinfonia’s Marketing Co-ordinator) and Evie (her sister) set off across Newbury and the surrounding area to distribute them to Southern Sinfonia’s current audience members (and hopefully some new ones too).

If you didn’t get one through your door, they’re also in all arts venues across West Berkshire, so you can pick one up there. Here’s a pic of one, so you know what to look for…