When you hear this exquisite music, remember that it was premiered and solely performed during Vivaldi's lifetime by a small group of virtuoso woman musicians every Sunday at the chapel of the Ospedale della Pietà on an elevated balcony behind metalwork frames and veils.
The audience was composed of a Europe-wide pilgrimage of musical connoisseurs, curiosity seekers, and lonely young men, the last of whom would sometimes pass marriage proposals and love notes to the mysterious women on the stage through the bars.
These musicians were recognised by authorities of the time to be among the greatest living performers. They were all personally trained by Vivaldi, and his concertos were tailor-made to feature specific musicians in the original manuscripts.
Lesser-known secret: many of these musicians had been born with birth defects, and found the privacy of their secret lives a blessing. Vivaldi sometimes had instruments designed to accomodate their handicaps, and composed music for them that would work around their physical challenges while still remaining virtuosic.
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Avi Avital (born 19 October 1978) is an Israeli mandolinist, and composer, who is filling the role played by 19th-century mandolinist virtuosi, traveling and playing to worldwide audiences and expanding the boundaries of the mandolin.
He is best known for his renditions of well-known Baroque and folk music, much of which was originally written for other instruments.
He has been nominated for a Grammy award (Best Instrumental Soloist with Ensemble) and in 2013 signed a record agreement with Deutsche Grammophon.
Avital was born in the Israeli city of Be'er Sheva and showed an aptitude for the mandolin at an early age; by the time he was eight years old, he was performing with a local orchestra. He went on to study at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and the Cesare Pollini Conservatory of Music in Padua, Italy, where the focus of his work moved from mandolin transcriptions of violin pieces to those originally written with his instrument in mind. His study in Italy was sponsored by the America-Israel Cultural Foundation
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