Antonio Vivaldi - The Four Seasons - YouTube Antonio Vivaldi - The Four Seasons Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Apr 23, 2012 Antonio Vivaldi The Four Seasons Full HD (Italian: Le quattro stagioni) is a set of four violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi Full Concert. Composed in 1723, The Four Seasons is Vivaldi's best-known work, and is among the most popular pieces of Baroque music. The texture of each concerto is varied, each resembling its respective season. For example, "Winter" is peppered with silvery pizzicato notes from the high strings, calling to mind icy rain, whereas "Summer" evokes a thunderstorm in its final movement, which is why the movement is often dubbed "Storm." The concertos were first published in 1725 as part of a set of twelve concerti, Vivaldi's Op.

8, entitled Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione (The Contest between Harmony and Invention). The first four concertos were designated Le quattro stagioni, each being named after a season. Each one is in three movements, with a slow movement between two faster ones. At the time of writing The Four Seasons, the modern solo form of the concerto had not yet been defined (typically a solo instrument and accompanying orchestra). Vivaldi's original arrangement for solo violin with string quartet and basso continuo helped to define the form. Die Vier Jahreszeite, Les Quatre Saisons compléter completare all movements English Chamber Orchestra Antonio Vivaldi - The Four Seasons, Op 8, N. 1 RV 269-1 - Allegro - Spring Antonio Vivaldi - The Four Seasons, Op 8, N. 1 RV 269-2 - Largo - Spring Antonio Vivaldi - The Four Seasons, Op 8, N. 1 RV 269-3 - Allegro - Spring Antonio Vivaldi - The Four Seasons, Op 8, N.

2 RV 315-1 - Allegro Non Molto - Allegro - Summer Antonio Vivaldi - The Four Seasons, Op 8, N. 2 RV 315-2 - Adagio - Summer Antonio Vivaldi - The Four Seasons, Op 8, N. 2 RV 315-3 - Presto - Summer Antonio Vivaldi - The Four Seasons, Op 8, N. 3 RV 293-1 - Allegro - Autumn Antonio Vivaldi - The Four Seasons, Op 8, N. 3 RV 293-2 - Molto Adagio - Autumn Antonio Vivaldi - The Four Seasons, Op 8, N. 3 RV 293-3 - Allegro - Autumn Antonio Vivaldi - The Four Seasons, Op 8, N. 4 RV 297-1 - Allegro Non Molto - Winter Antonio Vivaldi - The Four Seasons, Op 8, N. 4 RV 297-2 - Largo - Winter Antonio Vivaldi - The Four Seasons, Op 8, N.

4 RV 297-3 - Allegro - Winter Le quattro stagioni The Four Seasons (Vivaldi) Die Vier Jahreszeiten Las Cuatro Estaciones Classical Music compléter ganze Konzert von Vivaldi Full Concert Complete Music all movements greatest hits Category Vivaldi - The Four Seasons - Classic FM Schedule Vivaldi - The Four Seasons The Four Seasons, composed in 1723, is one of Baroque legend Vivaldi's most famous works for violin, but it accounts for just four of his 350 concertos. Vivaldi wrote so many concertos that, much like Haydn and his symphonies, he tended to resort to nicknames rather than numbers, for ease. Each concerto of his Four Seasons corresponds to a different season - so it's easy to guess how he nicknamed this particular work. The music is accompanied by beautiful Italian sonnets, written - possibly - by Vivaldi himself, after he was inspired by painter Marco Ricci's paintings of the seasons. It's even customary in some concerts that a narrator reads the poems before the performance, to bring the musical story to life.

Listen out for the texture of the music representing Winter, with the high-pitched plucking from the strings sounding a bit like cold and icy rain. There are also more descriptive labels dotted throughout the movements: the second movement of Spring is part-labelled 'the barking dog', while one section of Autumn says 'the drunks have fallen asleep'. You might even hear a passionate thunderstorm in Summer, with the balmy music representing a warm August evening. Vivaldi - Spring, The Four Seasons (Concerto No. 1 in E major, Op. 8, RV 269) - YouTube Vivaldi - Spring, The Four Seasons (Concerto No. 1 in E major, Op. 8, RV 269) Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Jul 4, 2014 Vivaldi - Spring, Concerto No. 1 in E major, Op.

8, RV 269, "La primavera" (Spring) - Allegro - Largo e pianissimo sempre - Allegro pastorale The Four Seasons (Italian: Le quattro stagioni) is a set of four violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi. Composed in 1725, The Four Seasons is Vivaldi's best-known work, and is among the most popular pieces in the classical music repertoire. The texture of each concerto is varied, each resembling its respective season. For example, "Winter" is peppered with silvery pizzicato notes from the high strings, calling to mind icy rain, whereas "Summer" evokes a thunderstorm in its final movement, which is why the movement is often called "Storm" (as noted in the list of derivative works). The concertos were first published in 1725 as part of a set of twelve concerti, Vivaldi's Op. 8, entitled Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione (The Contest Between Harmony and Invention).

Vivaldi dedicated their publication to a Bohemian patron, Count Václav Morzin (of Vrchlabí 1676--1737), and in so mentioned the count's longstanding regard for these four, in particular (which had apparently been performed with the nobleman's orchestra, in Prague's Morzin Palace)—although his dedication may have been closely related to the completion of an Augustinian monastery that year, where Vivaldi, a priest himself, refers to Morzin, the church's dedicator, as "Chamberlain and Counsellor to His Majesty, the Catholic Emperor"—while (as Maestro di Musica in Italy) Vivaldi presents them anew, with sonnets or enhancements for clear interpretation. The first four concertos are designated Le quattro stagioni, each being named after a season. Each one is in three movements, with a slow movement between two faster ones (and these movements likewise vary in tempo amid the seasons as a whole). At the time of writing The Four Seasons, the modern solo form of the concerto had not yet been defined (typically a solo instrument and accompanying orchestra).

Vivaldi's original arrangement for solo violin with string quartet and basso continuo helped to define the form of the concerto. Sonnets and allusions There is some debate as to whether the four concertos were written to accompany four sonnets or vice versa. Though it is not known who wrote these sonnets, there is a theory that Vivaldi wrote them himself, given that each sonnet is broken down into three sections, neatly corresponding to a movement in the concerto. Whoever wrote the sonnets, The Four Seasons may be classified as program music, instrumental music that intends to evoke something extra-musical and an art form which Vivaldi was determined to prove sophisticated enough to be taken seriously. In addition to these sonnets, Vivaldi provided instructions such as "The barking dog" (in the second movement of "Spring"), "Languor caused by the heat" (in the first movement of "Summer"), and "the drunkards have fallen asleep" (in the second movement of "Autumn"). The Four Seasons is used in the 1981 film The Four Seasons along with other Vivaldi concertos for flute.

------------------------------- The text above is offered by courtesy of Wikipedia, under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Classical music piece performed by: John Harrison — Violin / Robert Turizziani — Conductor / Wichita State University Chamber Players Music licensed by: John Harrison Music license: CC BY-SA 1.0 The Top Ten Greatest Violin Concertos - The Imaginative Conservative The Top Ten Greatest Violin Concertos Stephen M. Klugewicz 26 32361 The violin concerto as a form of music has endured for some 300 years and remains, alongside the piano concerto, the most popular type of concerto played in modern concert halls and committed to recording. The genre was first developed during the Baroque era, when the concerto was conceived as a tripartite structure, running about fifteen minutes in length.

Two of the masters of that era–Johann Sebastian Bach and Antonio Vivaldi–gave us supreme examples of this form; the former’s solo concertos, BWV 1041 and 1042, and double concerto, BWV 1043, boast more than 150 available recordings each, and the latter’s Four Seasons, a series of four concertos, ranks as one of the most popular classical pieces of all time. The masters of the classical period, Franz Josef Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, also composed in the form, the genre remaining throughout the Classical Period a pleasing diversion for concertgoers and party-goers, with concertos running about twenty to twenty-five minutes in length and being somewhat lighthearted in character. It was Beethoven who transformed the violin concerto in the first years of the nineteenth century, as he did the symphony, into a grand orchestral work, a profound and elongated statement that plumbed emotional depths left untouched by his predecessors. Such is the monumental nature of Beethoven’s single composition in the genre that it stands alone among his oeuvre; he seemed to think that it could not be rivaled by another attempt.

Beethoven’s example was followed by the composers of the Romantic Period, who saw the violin concerto as conducive not only to pyrotechnic displays of skill by the soloist but also as ripe for the expression of personal testimonies of great emotion. The concerto now stretched to some forty minutes or more. The likes of Johannes Brahms, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Felix Mendelssohn, Antonin Dvorak, and Jean Sibelius each completed one piece in the genre (an early, simple concerto for violin and strings by Mendelssohn excluded), and their compositions today are known simply as “The Brahms,” “The Tchaikovsky,” etc. The violin concerto continued to flourish into the twentieth century, with the Americans Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Samuel Barber providing two of its greatest post-Romantic incarnations, though returning its length to that of the Classical Period. Though it has been three-quarters of a century since the last great violin concerto was composed, the genre can survive for time immemorial because of the great incarnations of the form listed below. Here is the author’s somewhat subjective listing of the ten greatest violin concertos ever composed, in order of greatness from ten to one.

10. Wolfgang Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 3 in G Major, K. 216 (composed in 1775) Like his four horn concertos, Mozart’s five violin concertos possess such a similarity of temperament and form that no single one stands out as entirely distinctive and greater than the rest. The present author, however, would tab the third as the best of the lot. 9. Samuel Barber: Violin Concerto, op. 14 (composed in 1939) A melting main theme in the first movement, a pensive slow movement, and dancing pyrotechnics in the finale. The Pennsylvanian-born Barber follows the Romantic formula for the violin concerto and creates a work of remarkable loveliness. 8. Johannes Brahms: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 (composed in 1878) Much of Brahms’ work is derivative of his idol Beethoven—and that includes the Violin Concerto, his greatest work.

Though he clearly uses Beethoven as his model in terms of the character and length of the three movements, he comes up with his own tunes this time (as he did not, say, in his First Symphony) and actually plumbs the depths of the soul in the first movement instead—as was his wont elsewhere—of trying to sound like he is plumbing them. 7. Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Violin Concerto, Op. 35 (composed in 1945) Score another one for the Americans! A Jewish refugee from Austria, Korngold made America his home and made his fame in Hollywood as a film composer, yet he also produced “serious” classical works in traditional forms. None of these is greater than his Violin Concerto, perhaps the most underrated example in this genre ever composed. 6. Antonin Dvorak: Violin Concerto in A Minor, Op. 53 (composed in 1879) Famed for his New World Symphony, Dvorak’s Violin Concerto is strangely neglected in the concert hall and on record.

It launches boldly, reaches a meditative middle, concludes with a dance-like finale, and is filled with first-rate melodies, as are all of this composer’s best works. 5. Max Bruch: Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 26 (composed in 1866) Bruch officially wrote three violin concertos, but this one is clearly his greatest achievement in the genre. Opening mysteriously, the first movement alternates between song and storm; the concerto reaches its true climax in the heart-achingly beautiful middle movement, sometimes described as an aria for violin. 4. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35 (composed in 1878) The Tchaikovsky concerto divides critics, some of whom see it as clichéd and derivative. Others, like the present author, view it as a masterpiece, characteristic of the composer in its orchestral command and use of melody. Indeed, Tchaikovsky has no superior when it comes to melody, and he gives us one of his most beguiling in the first movement here. 3. Felix Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op.

64 (composed in 1845) One of the best-known violin concertos ever written, Mendelssohn unusually has the soloist enter almost immediately, as we are launched into an amazing first movement that combines pyrotechnics with deep pathos and mystery. There is a gorgeous slow movement and then a rip-roaring finale. Mendelssohn is often accused of being “light,” but his violin concerto possesses a depth and mystery that should make critics reevaluate their opinion of this composer. 2. Jean Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 47 (composed in 1904) Jean Sibelius is perhaps the most underrated of the great composers. A Finn who was known for his musical conservatism in drawing on the central European tradition of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven, his Violin Concerto is a towering masterpiece, its opening transporting us to an otherworldly realm of haunting memory and unnamed drama. The tension is sustained throughout the three joined movements of this astounding composition, where fire always lurks just beneath the icy, Nordic surface. 1. Ludwig van Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op.

61 (composed in 1806) From the opening timpani strokes of its brooding and titanic first movement, to its hushed and poignant slow movement, to its celebratory finale, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto remains unequalled. It is that first movement alone that would mark it as the greatest example of its kind. When playing the Violin Concerto, some soloists use cadenzas—the solo parts of a concerto traditionally improvised by the player—based on those that Beethoven himself wrote for the piano version of his piece. In the already-massive first movement, Beethoven’s long cadenza adds both a severity and jauntiness to the generally contemplative atmosphere. Readers/listeners may hear the three Beethoven cadenzas played in the video below. Books on the topic of this essay may be found in The Imaginative Conservative Bookstore . Share this: Listen to Violin Concerto, "Spring" from "The Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivaldi - Listening Library - The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Portrait by François Morellon la Cave Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons makes a strong case as the Western canon’s most universally familiar music.

Such widespread popularity is a double-edged sword: The Four Seasons’s ubiquity in popular culture has too often presented as harmless background music a fiendishly inventive work by a composer of terrific originality. The concertos that make up The Four Seasons (Le quattro stagioni) appeared as the first four of twelve violin concertos published as Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’inventione (The Contest between Harmony and Invention), op. 8. Vivaldi composed them to accompany a set of four sonnets—“La primavera,” “L’estate,” “L’autunno,” and “L’inverno”—whose authorship is uncertain but generally attributed to Vivaldi himself. The sonnets’ tripartite structures align with the three movements of each concerto, which in turn provide vivid musical depictions of the corresponding text. The Four Seasons evinces Vivaldi’s importance to the development of the Baroque concerto. His contributions to the genre, which total more than five hundred, defined the concerto form as a dialog between soloist and ensemble and established certain formal characteristics as standards in concerto writing.

(They also established the concerto as a vehicle for instrumental virtuosity—fittingly so, given Vivaldi’s stature as one of the finest violinists of his generation; more than two hundred of Vivaldi’s concertos are for violin.) Vivaldi’s concertos served as significant models for no less than Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, among other major works of the Baroque period. But of equal importance to the formal innovations manifested in works like The Four Seasons are the breadth of their dramatic character and the extent of Vivaldi’s vision in imagining the expressive potential of the concerto form. The Four Seasons concertos are remarkable for their illustration of their subject matter, whether in depicting hunting horns and guns in Autumn or in the chilling texture of Winter, mimetic of the “cold in the icy snow/In the harsh breath of a horrid wind.” Patrick Castillo ©2012 Classical Net - Basic Repertoire List - Vivaldi Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (1678 - 1741) For such an outstanding composer, relatively little is known about Vivaldi's life beyond the fact that he was born and raised in Venice.

This is ironic, considering this great Baroque composer's close association in the public's mind with everything Venetian – an association only bettered by Canaletto. Vivaldi's father was a violinist at St. Mark's, and there are indications that Antonio received his early musical schooling from within the family. He is understood to have trained as a priest, and was ordained in 1703. With this achieved, Vivaldi gave up any pretence to a life of the cloth and instead concentrated on his musical career. The same year he was appointed as maestro di violino by the Ospedale della Pieta, a charitable religious foundation for the education and upbringing of female orphans. His relationship with the Pieta was to last for the rest of his life, a central pivot around which his musical activities could revolve. Thus began the career of the man known to all as "Il Prete Rosso" (the Red Priest) on account of his extraordinary shock of red hair. It is worth conjecturing that Vivaldi's decision to join the priesthood solved the problem of earning a living while he practiced the art which obsessed him.

It is clear that his family was not well-to-do, unable to support him in the manner of Albinoni who remained a dilettante composer until well into his thirties. That Vivaldi's appointment was made – in part at least – because of his composing abilities seems assured by the fact that his superior at the Pieta was Francesco Gasparini who had been a pupil of Corelli and was a capable operatic composer. Vivaldi's skill as a violinist and his organizational abilities made him an ideal man for the role. The instrumental ensembles of the Pieta – already acknowledged as unusually high in achievement – eventually became a source of public admiration, their Sunday concerts often attended by capacity crowds. Vivaldi's role enabled him to experiment with his compositional ideas and techniques, and by 1705 he had earned enough of a reputation to publish his Opus 1, a series of Trio Sonatas. Three years later his Opus 2, a set of Violin Sonatas, appeared. It is clear, however, that some of his concertos were already in private circulation, and that the publication of L'Estro Armonico, Op.

3 publicly confirmed what a number of Venetians had begun to grasp: that here was a genius who was bringing the Baroque concerto form to a peak of perfection while simultaneously initiating a new approach to the idea of instrumental musical expression. What Vivaldi achieved with this vastly important collection was the definitive organization of musical material into a unified and highly expressive form which allowed for a hitherto unimagined freedom of invention, as well as enormous scope for drama and surprise. He aimed at simplicity and clarity at all times, avoiding the bombastic and portentous and concentrating on the telling phrase and the expressive sweep of a single melody perfectly accompanied by flawless harmony transparently scored. L'Estro Armonico was a revelation to his contemporaries, rendering obsolete all that came before it in the genre. After this there was nothing more for other Italian composers to do but try to beat Vivaldi at his own game. Few came close, for Vivaldi had such a wonderful combination of passion and imagination, elegance and poise. It is no accident that the young Johann Sebastian Bach came to know and revere this set of concerti, using it as his model for composing.

As his early biographer Johann Nikolaus Forkel commented: "He listened to them often, with great attention, and finally conceived the idea of transcribing them for his own keyboard. It was in this way that he learned the logic of musical ideas, their sequence, the correct succession for modulations, and many other things…he learned to think in music…(and)…borrow his musical ideas not from his fingers, but from his imagination". Vivaldi, however, did not rest on his laurels; he was intensely interested in opera, and 1713 saw his debut with Ottone in Villa. This heralded a new stage in his compositional life; increasing amounts of time were spent either composing, sourcing, overseeing or producing his (and other composers') operas. Another important watershed in his professional life occurred with the departure in 1714 of Gasparini, his superior at the Pieta, for Rome. Vivaldi now had to supply regular musical material for the Pieta's choir, in addition to his usual outpouring of instrumental and operatic music.

By the end of the following year, Vivaldi was being praised by the Pieta's governors for already delivering a Mass, an oratorio, more than 30 motets, and a Vespers. In 1714 Vivaldi published his Op. 4, La Stravaganza, which made further advances in the evolution of the concerto genre. Time and again he excites the anticipation of the audience through his clever musical constructions, only to overturn it by the most imaginative and capricious means at his disposal. This, however, should not give the impression that these concertos were any less rigorously organized than the former series; they are every bit as formally perfect, and the underlying musical forms which Vivaldi took for new development point, in part, to concerti grossi models as well as to the solo concerto in which he specialized. After this series of artistic triumphs, Vivaldi increasingly applied for leave of absence to travel extensively in Italy and further abroad.

There was a period of time (estimated to be about four years, although the actual dates vary from between 1707 to 1721) when he was in the service of Philip von Hessen (of Hesse-Darmstadt), the Governor of Mantua. While in Mantua he met a singer, Anna Giraud, who later appeared as the soprano lead in many of his operas. Their relationship remained close and Anna, together with her sister; often acted as his traveling companions. His concertos continued to be published in Amsterdam, with Opus 7 appearing in 1716. His crowning glory, Opus 8, appeared in 1725, although the music had probably been composed from 1720 onwards. This set of 8 concerti, entitled Il cimento dell' armonia e dell' inventione, included the now universally acclaimed four concerti called Le quattro stagione (The Four Seasons), which were accompanied by brief poems describing the seasonal pictures Vivaldi wished to echo in his music.

The second section included the famous La tempesta di mare (Storm at Sea) and La Caccia (The Hunt), violin concertos which were every bit as pictorial as the former four works. These works were all dedicated to the Bohemian Count Wenzel von Morzin, a Habsburg potentate with whom Vivaldi was regularly associated. The composer, meanwhile, had been to Rome in 1723-4, where he was given the opportunity to impress the Pope, playing before him to sustained applause. By 1727 he was ready to publish his last great set of concerti, La Cetra (The Lyre), Op. 9. This was dedicated to the Austrian Emperor, Charles VI, with whom Vivaldi seems to have become acquainted in Vienna during the mid-1720s. The Emperor, a great music enthusiast, a keen amateur composer and keyboard player, could not have failed to be impressed by Vivaldi.

This is born out by a report of their later meeting in Trieste in 1728: "The Emperor conversed for a long time with Vivaldi about music; they say that he talked longer to him in private in 15 days than he talks to his ministers in two years". It is interesting to note that there exists a second set of 12 concertos entitled La Cetra and dedicated to the Emperor which contains just one work common to both sets and remained in manuscript during Vivaldi's lifetime. The music in this later set is every bit as compelling and inventive as earlier collections, with the quality of the writing uniformly high. With this work and the corresponding operas of the late 1720s and early 1730s, Vivaldi passed from the peak of his profession into a long decline. New composers and new styles of Italian opera and chamber music were pressing for the public's attention, especially those from Naples. Vivaldi, now in his mid-fifties, was beginning to be taken for granted by his audience.

His absences from Venice and the Pieta also told against him as the tide of public fashion turned, and when his great patron Philip von Hessen died in 1736 the church authorities lost little time making him feel uncomfortable in Venice. In 1737 his operas were banned on the pretext that he was to be regarded as a lapsed priest due to his association with Anna Giraud, and the following year the governors of the Pieta used similar reasoning in their decision not to renew his contract. By 1740, tired and increasingly isolated, Vivaldi left Venice once more and traveled to Vienna, perhaps in the hope of gaining a position there. Like Wolfgang Mozart 40 years later, he was disappointed; his great friend, Emperor Charles VI, had died just prior to his arrival and the new rulers were already plunged into what became the War of Austrian Succession. Vivaldi spent the winter in Vienna hoping for an upturn in his fortunes but nothing transpired. By the spring he was weak and ailing, and in July, at the height of summer; he died, He was buried – again like Mozart – in a pauper's grave.

With a catalogue of works which include nearly 500 concertos alone, and considering that Vivaldi himself only published – in the collections detailed above – close to 100 concertos, there is a vast amount which is not in any way conveniently collected and are only identifiable by instruments, keys employed and RV numbers. The most famous sets of concertos – Opus 3 and Opus 8, the latter including the Four Seasons – contain the richness and freshness of Vivaldi's invention at its early and middle peaks. The Opus 3 L'Estro Armonico concertos are greatly varied in terms of the combination of solo instrumentation (there are also a number in the concerti grossi style), while Opus 8 reflects a peak in terms of Vivaldi's marvelous ear for the sounds of nature, as well as his ability to convert what he sees around him into musical phrases.

Apart from concertos written for one, two or three violins, there are over 20 cello concertos, close to 50 bassoon concertos, 20 for the relatively new instrument, the oboe, plus concertos for what was then a very new instrument, the clarinet, concertos for mandolins, and the ravishing Opus 10 flute concertos. As with the concertos, Vivaldi's sacred music is usually represented by his Glorias, RV 589 and 588, but there is a great deal more very beautiful and often moving music written for religious settings, including a Stabat Mater RV 621 and over 20 cantatas. There is no doubt that Vivaldi set great store by his stage works, claiming to have produced close to 100 of them in the 28 years between his first and last operas. This can no longer be authenticated, although nearly 50 can be accounted for. Unfortunately, only a few scores have been located, and only a handful of the operas that have survived have received professional productions in modern times.

Vivaldi wrote in the opera seria style, as well as completing a number of the more opera buffo-type intermezzi before the end of his career. The latter is well represented by La Senna Festeggiante (1728), while his operatic style can be accurately surmised from the 1735 production, Catone in Utica. Recommended Recordings Antonio Vivaldi - an overview of the classical composer All Classical Composers Antonio Vivaldi (1678 – 1741) Second only to Bach , Vivaldi is one of the most famous and celebrated of composers from the Baroque Period. He was born in Venice at the time when the city was the capital of an independent state called the Republic of Venice. His father was a musician in the prestigious St. Mark's Cathedral, and taught the young Antonio to play the violin at a young age. The violin was to be a key instrument for Vivaldi as both performer and composer.

Like his father and other members of his family, Vivaldi had red hair and, when he was ordained into the priesthood at the age of 25, he was given the nickname "The Red Priest" (Il Preto Rosso) for this reason. However he suffered from what is thought to have been asthma, and because of this he was not required to fulfil the normal duties of a priest. Instead he was assigned to an orphanage called "The Devout Hospital of Mercy" (Conservatorio dell'Ospedale della Pieta) which was one of several institutions in the area with a strong emphasis on musical education. His role there was initially master of the violin, and he was to remain with the Pieta for more than 30 years. The post was overtly a teaching position and Vivaldi taught and coached the girl orphans, the most talented of whom performed in the establishment's orchestra and choir. There were also boys at the orphanage, but their education concentrated on learning a trade and they generally left to become apprentices at the age of 15. In addition to teaching he also composed music to be played by the school's orchestra and choir, and he also performed with them.

His fame spread across Venice, Italy and Europe, helped in part by the publication of some of his works. His growing reputation as a violinist and composer gave him a degree of independence from the school. Provided he continued to compose for them, he had the freedom to accept other commissions and to travel to other artistic cities in Europe to play and promote his music. Vivaldi was later promoted to the post of Music Director of the Institution. In later life having retired from the orphanage, his fame diminished and like a number of other composers, he died a pauper. He was buried outside of the city walls, and a young Joseph Haydn was one of 6 boy choristers who sang at his funeral. Vivaldi's music had fallen out of fashion, and it wasn't until a revival of interest in Baroque music during the 19th Century that his name and some of his works became better known by composers of the day. Vivaldi's strongest revival with concert audiences did not come until the 20th century when many more of his scores were released from a private hands, and his "Four Seasons" became firmly established as a popular favourite.

Music from these concertos was used extensively in the TV Series "Casanova" shown in 1971 set in Venice (a few decades after Vivaldi's death) and starring Frank Finlay in the title role. The music was again used in the 1981 romantic comedy movie "The Four Seasons" written by and starring Alan Alda. In 1989 Nigel Kennedy released his interpretation of The Four Seasons, generally faster-paced than previous recordings, and this album sold more than 2 million copies making it one of the most successful classical recordings ever. Performances are planned for all of these works. Vivaldi's music Vivaldi composed a number of Operas and liturgical works for his employers, but it is primarily as a composer of Concerti that he is best known. He took the established Concerto form of the day, with a solo instrument supported by a string orchestra (possibly with other instruments) playing recurring "ritornello" passages. He made the Concerto more playful and flamboyant, giving the soloist more of a starring role as a virtuoso, and expanded the accepted forms of interplay between the solo and orchestral sections.

His slow movement (the middle of 3 movements in the traditional concerto) were also expanded in a way similar to the arias of his opera. All these innovations were to lead directly into the Concerto as we know it from the Classical Period, where the form was frequently used by composers such as Mozart and Beethoven . Vivaldi himself was influenced by the dominant forms performed in Italy at the time, especially the music of Corelli. Vivaldi himself has been criticised because many of 400+ concertos were predictable in style, but some of these concertos clearly demonstrate the composer's willingness to indulge in experimentation and innovation. Some of his concertos are clearly programmatic in nature, meaning that they tell a story in music. His Four Seasons is an obvious example because they contain storms, bird calls, and other evocative events that help to convey the different moods of the 4 seasons of the year. These programmatic notes have been written into the relevant parts of the score, so the composer's intention are very clear. Some of his other concertos for Violin and Flute are also programmatic.

During the Baroque period, Johann Sebastian Bach was also influenced by Vivaldi, transcribing a number of his concerti to be played on various keyboard instruments. Haydn too was influenced by Vivaldi, particularly by the Four Seasons, and the Venetian composer has also clearly influenced composers of the classical era by his innovations on the Concerto form. Vivaldi composed hundreds of concerti for solo violin, multiple violins, cello, oboe, flute, bassoon and other instruments. He also wrote Sonatas and Sinfonias, sacred choral music and operas. His most famous work is The Four Seasons (or "Le quattro stagioni") which is a cycle of 4 violin concertos depicting events and scenes from each of the 4 seasons. As such it is the finest example of early program music (i.e. music which tells a story) and this is in part why it captures the imagination of listeners, and has influenced many composers and artists (including perhaps pizza makers).

The two covers shown above are Nigel Kennedy's historic recordings and they can be found as follows: Original release in 1989 - from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk 20th Anniversary Release (CD and DVD) - from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk On mfiles you can find the full music for the 3rd of these concerti, Autumn in full score and with all the parts. Like most concertos this is in 3 movements, and the work is also available in midi and mp3 formats. We also have an arrangement of Autumn for Violin and Piano also complete with parts and audio files, and an alternative arrangement of Autumn for Piano Solo . Given that the composer died 270 years ago, you would think that we would know as much about Vivaldi's music as we are likely to know. However in two separate incidents just weeks apart, new music by Vivaldi has been discovered. Firstly, a researcher uncovered a Vivaldi score when searching through papers in the National Archives of Scotland. It turned out to be the only known copy of a Flute Concerto called "Il Gran Mogol" (The Great Mogul).

This is one of a set of 4 Concertos based on Nationalities - "Il Gran Mogol" refers to India then ruled by the Mogul Emperors, and the others are "La Francia" (France), "La Spagna" (Spain), and "L’Inghilterra" (England). The Flute Concerto was virtually complete and here is the opening from the solo flute part - image: National Archives of Scotland. The second incident was the discovery in the Foundling Museum in London of 2 previously unknown Vivaldi violin sonatas. Vivaldi's key works Vivaldi often grouped his concertos into sets. For example, the Four Seasons are actually the first 4 of a set of 12 concertos called "Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione" (The Contest between Harmony and Invention), while a previous set of 12 violin concertos were call L'Estro Armonico (Harmonic Imagination). In general Vivaldi's concerto groups have Opus numbers, while individual works within the group or standalone works are identified by RV numbers (after Peter Ryom, a Danish scholar who catalogued the works).

Violin Concertos 12 Concertos, Op.3 - Harmonic Imagination (L'estro armonico) 12 Concertos, Op.4 - The Extraordinary (La Stravaganza) 12 Concertos, Op.8 - The Contest Between Harmony and Invention (Il Cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione) - Nos.1-4 are the Four Seasons: No.1 in E, RV269 Spring (La primavera); No.2 in Gm, RV315 Summer (L'estate); No.3 in F, RV293 Autumn (L'autunno); No.4 in Fm, RV297 Winter (L'inverno); No.5 in Eb, RV253 The Sea Storm (La tempesta di mare); No.6 in C, RV253 Pleasure (Il piacere); etc.

12 Concertos for violin and 1 Concerto for 2 violins, Op.9 - La Cetra (La Cetra was a musical instrument in the Lyre family) Concerto for violin, strings and continuo in D, RV234 - Anxiety (L'inquietudine) Concerto for violin, strings and continuo in E, RV271 - Love (L'amoroso) Many other concertos for Solo Violin and Strings Many other concertos for 2 Violins and Strings Other Concertos 6 Concertos for Flute and strings, Op.10 - No.1 in F, RV433 The Sea Storm (La tempesta di mare) though different from the violin concerto of the same name; No.2 in Gm, RV439 The Night (La notte); etc.

Many other concertos for Flute and Strings Rustic Concerto in G, RV151 Rustic Concerto (Concerto alla Rustica) for strings and continuo Many other concertos for just Strings Many concertos for Cello and Strings Many concertos for Oboe and Strings Many concertos for Bassoon and Strings Many concertos for Viola d'amore and Strings Concerto for mandolin and Strings in C, RV425 Concerto for 2 trumpets in C, RV537 Many other concertos for solo instruments or combinations of instruments plus Strings Other Instrumental Works Sinfonias - many of these for Strings Sonatas - several for solo cello, several for solo violin, several for solo flute, several for 2 violins, and some examples for other instruments and combinations including recorder, oboe, bassoon, etc.

Gloria in D, RV589 Operas Vivaldi wrote a substantial number of operas starting with his first "Ottone in villa" RV729 in 1713, though many were later reworked and recycled as new operas with different titles, a fact which has sometimes confused scholars attempting to catalogue his works Sacred Choral Works Oratorio: Juditha triumphans, RV644 - celebrating Venice's victory over Turkey and the recapture of Corfu Credo, Kyrie and many other works

Question: Who wrote the violin concertos "The Four Seasons"?
Answer: Antonio Vivaldi