Timecodes refer to the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra's album Vivaldi: The Four Seasons with Elizabeth Wallfisch as soloist (ABC Classics).Įach concerto has three movements, Fast-Slow-Fast. 45 minutes What to Listen for in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons 1723, Italy Published: 1725, Amsterdam as part of a set of 12 concertos, Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’inventione (The Contest Between Harmony and Invention) Genre: Concerto (set of four) Instrumentation: Solo violin, violins, violas, cellos, double basses, organ or harpsichord Duration: c. 8 Composer: Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741) Period: Baroque Composed: c. Title: Le quattro stagioni (The Four Seasons), op. Here are some key moments to listen out for. They are some of the most extravagant examples of music that tells a story (“program music”) from the baroque period. The work will be performed at the Barbican, London EC2 (020-7638 8891 ), on 31 October.Vivaldi’s Four Seasons are four violin concertos depicting the seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. That's what I'm really pleased with: my aim was to fall in love with the original again – and I have." It's almost a kind of jump-cut aesthetic – all those extreme leaps between different kinds of material.
Vivaldi 4 seasons full#
It's so dynamic, so full of amazing images. "The original Four Seasons is a phenomenally innovative and creative piece of work. If the work sends listeners back to the original with new ears, that's all part of the point, says Richter. It's really eerie: Max has kept Vivaldi's melody, but it's pulled apart by the ethereal harmonics underneath it."Ĭan it all work beyond the recording studio? Audiences at the Barbican in London will find out later this month, when Vivaldi Recomposed is given its debut performance, with Hope backed by the Britten Sinfonia under the baton of André de Ridder. "It's as if an alien has picked it up and pulled it through a time warp. "It's really out of this world," he says. The slow movement of Winter is another standout moment for Hope. But even in poking fun at the original, there's always enormous respect." You end up with a rickety and slightly one-legged Vivaldi. He pulls the rhythm around, starts dropping quavers here and there. "What really threw me was the first movement of Autumn. "I had to deal with all the curveballs Max throws at you, the way he does things you don't expect." The experience clearly messed with Hope's mind. "It was incredibly thought-provoking," he says. And imagine how it felt for Recomposed's solo violinist Daniel Hope: having played the original for decades, he – and more importantly his fingers – faced a surreal task when he first picked his way through Richter's score. Part of the fun of the album is that your ears play tricks with your memory of the original: these familiar melodies do unexpected things, resulting in an experience that's both disturbing yet full of strange delights. It's pattern music, in a way, so there's a connection with the whole post-minimalist aesthetic I'm part of." I was pleased to discover that Vivaldi's music is very modular. "There are times I depart completely from the original, yes, but there are moments when it pokes through. You can hear this chemical reaction particularly well at the opening of Richter's reworked Summer concerto, which has become a weird collision of Arvo Pärt-likemelancholy in the solo violin and a minimalist workout for the rest of the strings. This involved "throwing molecules of the original Vivaldi into a test tube with a bunch of other things, and waiting for an explosion".
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