Vivaldi, The Four Seasons

Ask a non-classical music fan to name a piece of classical music.
If they don’t say Beethoven 5, or the Ode to Joy, they probably
will say The Four Seasons. They might not know that it was
written by Vivaldi, but the Four Seasons are a set of pieces that
have made that leap into popular culture in a way that almost no
other classical composition has. The Four Seasons have been
remixed, reimagined, rearranged, and recycled so many times that
most classical musicians barely suppress an eye roll when they
see them programmed or hear them mentioned. For some classical
musicians, especially the ones that disdain anything to do with
pop culture, the Four Seasons represent kitsch in classical
music, an overplayed and overrated set of violin concertos that
could easily be put away forever. But that’s a huge mistake on
our part. For me, the Four Seasons are a masterpiece from a
criminally underrated composer. They show a remarkable level of
creativity, innovation, and ingenuity, and when you strip back
the layers of accumulated traditions, all the remixes and
“improvements” of them, you’re left with pieces that are way way
way ahead of their time, and as exciting and fresh to listen to
as they must have been when Vivaldi first wrote them. So today
I’m going to take you through the Four Seasons - we’ll talk about
Vivaldi’s place in musical history, program music and what that
meant in Vivaldi’s time, and how music can portray nature. And
I’ll try to convince any skeptical listeners out there that these
pieces, far from being overplayed cliches, are actually
underplayed, at least in their original form. Join us!


Recording: Janine Jansen with Amsterdam Sinfonietta. Link to
video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzE-kVadtNw