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It was not until 1957 that the now familiar original version was published and given its first performance at the First Festival of Baroque Choral Music at Brooklyn College, NY. This was by no means an authentic edition (he described it as an “elaborazione”), as he embellished the original orchestration and cut sections from three movements. But even then, it still was not performed until September 1939 in Siena in an edition by the composer Alfredo Casella. The score was clearly intended for performance by the orphanage’s gifted chorus.Īrguably his most significant work, the score disappeared after Vivaldi’s death and remained undiscovered for nearly two centuries until, in the late 1920s, it was found buried among a pile of forgotten manuscripts. Ordained in the Roman Catholic tradition and nicknamed il Prete Rosso- the Red Priest – for his shock of red hair, Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria in D major, RV 589 was probably composed in Venice sometime after 1713 and before 1717, shortly after he retired from full-time teaching at the Ospedale della Pietà.
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