Famous people

Antonio Vivaldi
the Italian composer

He composed most of his music for the pupils of a girls’ orphanage in Venice.
His job was to teach the violin, but because the choir and orchestra there were so good, he composed music for them
He lived from 1678- 1741

His well-known works
His most famous work includes the Four Seasons concertos – but he wrote hundreds of other pieces.
For example- he is the creator of 90 operas.

JOSEPH HAYDN
1732-1809

JOSEPH HAYDN
He is a great Austrian composer. He was born in a village not far from Vienna.
He composed more than 80 string quartets, 100 symphonies, 52 sonatas, about 30 operas.
Symphonies, quartets and sonatas are considered to be his best musical compositions.

He was called “Papa” of symphonies and quartets, because he made them classical.
He lived long life and knew Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, who highly appreciated his talent.
Haydn’s contemporaries adored his music.

LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN
1770-1827
Ludwig van Beethoven has been called the greatest composer has ever lived- yet he was deaf for much of his life.
He was born in Bonn in Germany. At the age of 17 he went to Vienna to study under Mozart. The teacher and the student soon became friends.
Later he studied with Joseph Haydn,

Beethoven
we know he was not satisfied and took extra lessons in secret.
By the age of 32, he knew he was going deaf. Deeply depressed, he had to give up playing, but was able to go on composing because he could still hear the sound of the music in his head.
He used to go for long walks, carrying a sketch book in which he wrote down his musical ideas.

Beethoven’s works
We remember him for many great works – including masterpieces such as the Moonlight Sonata and his famous Ninth Symphony, in which he introduced choral music for the first time in symphony.

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
1685-1750
Johann Sebastian Bach was a famous German composer. He was taught music fist by his father, who was a professional musician, and then, when his father died, by his brother.
He composed 48 preludes and fugues which are studied in every musical school now.

Johann Sebastian Bach
He also wrote a lot of church music. His music for church choirs includes 200 cantatas. He led a life full of hardships. Unfortunately, neither he contemporaries nor his sons who also were talented musicians could understand how talented Bach was.
His name became world famous only in the nineteenth century.

Bach
In 1747 he lost his sight. He died very soon afterwards, in 1750.
Many people all over the world know this great person and his great music.
We know his works too and have a great pleasure to listen to it.

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
1685-1750

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
1756-1791
Mozart was the greatest Austrian composer. He lived only 35 years, but in that time he became one of the world’s most famous composers.
He was born in Austria in 1756. He began composing at the age of five.
His father was a musician and he taught his son to play different instruments.

Mozart
As a very young child his father took him on a tour of Europe, playing before royalty.
From the age of six he toured Europe and gave concerts in Austria, Germany, France, Italy and Switzerland.
As a young man, Mozart settled in Vienna. He wrote symphonies and several great operas, including “The Marriage of Figaro” and “ The Magic Flute”.

Mozart

He died very suddenly after a short illness. Rumour had it that he had been poisoned, but it is more likely that he had a weak heart.
He died so poor that only the gravedigger attended his funeral.
There are many legends around Mozart’s death.

Mozart’s death
They say two weeks before his death a man in black visited him anonymously and ordered him to write a requiem. Mozart agreed because he needed money badly. He was a romantic and impressionable man. He felt sure that it was his death. The visitor in black was just a certain count who wanted to publish the requiem
As his own composition.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

P.I. Tchaikovsky
1840-1893
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, an outstanding composer, was born in Votkinsk in 1840.
He was fond of music since his early childhood. His mother sang him beautiful songs and taught him to play the piano. But Pyotr Ilyich graduated from the Petersburg Conservatoire only in 1866 because of his poor living conditions.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
He was the best pupil of Anton Rubinshtein. When the Moscow Conservatoire was founded Pyotr Ilyich became a professor there.
He created wonderful music: ten operas, three ballets, six symphonies, seven symphonic poems and many other musical pieces.

His works
“Eugene Onegin”, a new type of opera, was a great success all over the world.
His “Swan Lake”, “ The Nutcracker”, “ The Sleeping Beauty” are the musical masterpieces. Besides, Tchaikovsky was a great conductor, and he conducted a lot of operas and symphonies himself.

Tchaikovsky
N his music he used folk melodies for description of Russian nature and life.
He became the first Russian doctor of music abroad. He came back from Cambridge famous all over the world.
His compositions are full of realism. Though he wrote his operas and ballets in the 19th century , they are real to us now.