Vivaldi, played badly, is the worst classical music on earth


I thought I hated Vivaldi, the Four Seasons especially, but then I heard an absolutely sublime recording.... sadly I don't remember who the composer or orchestra was.
erik_squires
Vivaldi (the red priest because of his red hair and church duties) was in charge of a church school for "wayward" teenage girls. He composed this and many pieces to keep his girls busy with " proper" instead of banal efforts
The person who is mention saying Mozart wrote elevator music has never heard the String Quintet, K 516 in G minor, written after his father’s death. And almost certainly not the Requiem that Mozart was writing at the very end of his life. To each his or her own, but there are experiences that go far, far beyond cliches.

And performance is ultimately greater than sound quality as referred to now. A well recorded perfunctory performance will
always be a perfunctory performance. Caruso recorded in 1915 and, say, Louis Armstrong and his hot five and seven recorded around 1927. Toscanini’s Beethoven 7th Symphony from
1936 (actually quite vivid sound in sensitive remastering) and Duke Ellington’s great recordings from 1940 to 1943 for starters.
Having played Vivaldi violin concertos myself, I take exception to the bashing of his music.  I always loved it especially this piece.

Watch "Suzuki Violin Book 4, #4: Vivaldi Concerto in Am, 1st mvt." on YouTube
https://youtu.be/b54VwY6gJv4
"Classical" is the generic term for the style of music we're talking about here.  Yes, it narrowly refers to the music upper class Europeans listened to from about 1750 to about 1820 but it's totally okay to call J.S. Bach, George Gershwin, Tchaikovsky or Dallapiccola classical composers, as well.  A lot of people include Duke Ellington, though there's still a smidgen of controversy over this.  Heck, Qobuz uses the term this way.  So did every record store (remember record stores?) that carried that vast amalgamation of/approach toward music.