Composed 1716-17; 9 minutes

Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons open a set of twelve concertos published in 1725 as Op. 8, under the evocative title Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’inventione (The Contest between Harmony and Invention). In these four concertos, Vivaldi explores the balance between the rational structure of music and the imaginative world of sound painting. He is thought to have written accompanying sonnets himself, linking them precisely to the music.

Each concerto follows a structure Vivaldi helped to standardize: that of two fast outer movements, framing a slower middle movement. The fast movements include recurring ritornelli (literally ‘little returns’) where the full orchestra returns regularly with familiar material. In between these passages are episodes featuring the soloist. 

Three centuries on, Vivaldi’s imagery still leaps off the page. From the bright F major key of the Autumn hunt (la caccia), Vivaldi now turns to the darker, more desolate key of F minor for Winter. Now we shiver against the icy wind (frosty string notes clash together) and stamp our feet (accented notes). The Four Seasons go far beyond musical picture-painting. Like Romantic program music, they aim—in Beethoven’s words—to be “more an expression of feeling than painting.”

— Program notes copyright © 2026 Keith Horner. 
Comments welcomed: khornernotes@gmail.com