Antonio Caldara was born in Venice around 1670, and died in Vienna in 1736. To say he was a gifted musician would be the understatement of the century as he was a brilliant viol player, cellist and keyboard player, and in his younger days had risen to the rank of choirboy at St Mark's Church in Venice. His compositional output was enormous with an estimated output of over three thousand, four hundred works. His operas alone number over ninety - who says Mozart was a prolific composer! - and his oratorios and vocal works are almost as prolific. Most of the scores, regrettably, have long disappeared, but we do have notice of the enormous renumeration that Caldara received in his later years spent in Vienna, but regrettably he seemed to spend it faster than anyone could feed him with florins.

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