11/13/2023 0 Comments Vivaldi the four seasons![]() Though three of the concerti are wholly original, the first, "Spring", borrows patterns from a sinfonia in the first act of Vivaldi's contemporaneous opera Il Giustino. The Four Seasons is the best known of Vivaldi's works. They were published in 1725 in Amsterdam, together with eight additional concerti, as Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione ( The Contest Between Harmony and Invention). These were composed around 1718−1720, when Vivaldi was the court chapel master in Mantua. The Four Seasons ( Italian: Le quattro stagioni) is a group of four violin concertos by Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi, each of which gives musical expression to a season of the year. The most recent Masterworks performance was in 2006 with Corey Cerovsek.Set of four violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi Antonio Vivaldi (engraving by François Morellon de La Cave, from Michel-Charles Le Cène's edition of Vivaldi's Op. THE CONNECTION – Utah Symphony has programmed The Four Seasons, whole and in part, many times over the years. ![]() It was also a year international accords, including the Treaty of Vienna between Austria and Spain and the Treaty of Hanover between Great Britain, France and Prussia. THE WORLD – Russian Tsar Peter the Great died in 1725, as did composer Alessandro Scarlatti. The effect of hearing the entire “year” in one sitting is both a thrilling pictorial experience and a fascinating evolutionary snapshot of the violin itself. His Four Seasons may well be the culmination, historically if not intentionally, of that effort. Vivaldi was reportedly an expert violinist in his own right and he has often been credited with bringing his instrument out of the ensemble and to the fore as a featured solo voice. ![]() Each musical Season is a virtuosic showpiece for soloist and accompaniment, replete with allusions to the birds of Spring, the heat of Summer, the harvest celebrations of Autumn and the bitter winds of Winter. Regardless, the three-part structure of the poetic words corresponds nicely with what would become the traditional fast-slow-fast configuration of the baroque concerto. The authorship of the texts is unknown but there exists some suspicion that the Vivaldi himself wrote them. The Seasons comprise the first four of the set’s twelve concerti and are each based on evocative sonnets that represent their respective time of year. ![]() Vivaldi dedicated the work to Count Wenzel von Morzin (yes, of the same Morzin family that would later commission Haydn). His most famous work, The Four Seasons, was first published in Amsterdam (1725) as part of a larger collection with the rather grand title of The Contest of Harmony and Invention. THE HISTORY – Ever prolific, Vivaldi still found plenty of time to travel and compose other music. Records from Pietà confirm payment for at least 140 such works over the ensuing six years. Much was expected of him there, including a request in 1723 for no less than two concerti per month, to be sent by mail if necessary, for performance by the school orchestra. THE COMPOSER – ANTONIO VIVALDI (1678-1741) – Vivaldi became music director of the Ospedale della Pietà (an orphanage for girls) in 1716 after more than a decade as the violin instructor. ![]()
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