Vivaldi learned the violin from his father, a Venetian barber who played in the orchestra of San Marco cathedral. Indeed, only in 1962 was his birthdate determined from baptismal records to have been 1678 prior writers had placed it as early as 1669. Biographies typically devote at most a few dozen pages to his career and the rest to his works. Even extensive modern scholarship leaves many wide gaps in his whereabouts and activities. The details of Vivaldi's life are surprisingly sketchy. While Beethoven wrote seven concertos, Brahms four and Bach, Haydn, Handel and Mozart at most a few dozen, Vivaldi wrote over 500 (and more are being uncovered each year)! When you're that prolific, some recycling and lapsing into formula is inevitable. Although he wrote 39 operas, 73 sonatas and loads of religious music, Vivaldi is best known for his concertos. Yet, with Antonio Vivaldi, there's at least a grain of truth in this disparaging barb. As with any worthy pursuit, familiarity breeds a fascination with subtlety and detail completely lost on causal observers.
Of course, that's just ignorance – the same could (and often is) said about Bach, the blues or any other style one knows nothing about.
Of all the aspersions hurled against classical music, the one that makes the least sense is that it all sounds the same.
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