Composed: 1723
Premiered: Unknown
Duration: 37 minutes

Can there be anyone in today’s audience who has not heard Vivaldi’s Four Seasons? This must surely be one of the most frequently played pieces of classical music. Currently about 1,000 different recorded performances are available. But the vogue for Vivaldi is really of quite recent origin. The 1950 edition of the Oxford Companion to Music dismissed Vivaldi in just nine lines, at a time when the “baroque revival” was already well under way. Le quattro stagioni, to give it its original title, was published in Amsterdam in 1725, along with a number of other concertos by Vivaldi. The dedication is to Count Morzin of Bohemia; Vivaldi held the office of “Maestro di Musica in Italia” in the count’s retinue. Probably his duties amounted only to supplying music for the count’s court, but he may have directed his orchestra during his visits to Italy. It is a measure of Vivaldi’s fame that princes as far away as Bohemia should seek out his music. In fact, Vivaldi’s principal employment for much of his life was as Music Director at the Ospedale della Pietà, an orphanage for girls in Venice. The musical performances at the Pietà were famous all over Europe. Then as now, Venice was an important tourist destination, and among the pleasures of the city was a visit to its Sunday performances, where the music was said to rival the best to be heard anywhere. Vivaldi took full advantage of his position, and sold manuscripts of his works at high prices to the aristocratic tourists who came to listen to his girls perform.

Each of the four violin concertos making up the set of The Four Seasons is prefaced by an Italian sonnet by an unknown author, possibly Vivaldi himself. In the published score, each group of lines in the poetry is explicitly linked to a section of the music, which illustrates and illuminates the words. Word-painting of this kind was quite common in music of this period, but seldom is it as vivid as in these examples. Perhaps it is the direct appeal of these musical pictures that has led to the immense popularity of this work, but there is really quite a lot more to it if one listens with more than half an ear. The pressure was on Vivaldi to produce vast amounts of music (there are close to 500 known concertos, not to mention a great deal of seldom performed vocal music, as well as music for smaller instrumental groups). The result was a style which minimized his effort, while emphasizing its immediately tuneful and attractive aspects. One does hear snide remarks about the “Vivaldi Concerto Factory”, but given strong, vivid performances, its products are almost always good listening. Vivaldi knew his business, and works such as The Four Seasons wear very well.

Program note by the late Dr. C.W. Helleiner