The year 2021 marked the 280th anniversary of Antonio Vivaldi’s death. In 1740, Vivaldi moved to Vienna to seek the patronage of Emperor Charles VI. When Charles died later that year, Vivaldi was left without a source of income. Ten months after his arrival in Vienna, the composer died, abandoned and unnoticed by the musical world. He was buried in a simple grave at Spitaller Gottsacker (the local hospital’s cemetery, now site of the Technical University of Vienna) on the 28th of July 1741.
At the zenith of his achievement, Vivaldi’s sphere of influence extended far beyond Northern Italy. When violinist Johann Georg Pisendel returned from touring Italy, he propagated Vivaldi’s technique at the Court of Dresden, Germany. Even the ingenious Johann Sebastian Bach studied Vivaldi’s concertos for organ or cembalo, and thereby refined his own compositional style.