Sunday Classics: I wonder whether Vivaldi would be surprised by the still-growing irresistibility of his "Four Seasons"

Itzhak Perlman plays my favorite movement from The Four Seasons: from Winter, the warm-and-toasty-indoors Largo, with Zubin Mehta conducting the Israel Philharmonic. Vivaldi's slow movements often have more internal rhythmic impulsion (though it may not be entirely evident in Maestro Mehta's slack hands) than most composers' fast movements, a lesson Mozart absorbed, and showed off in the great "Elvira Madigan" slow movement of his Piano Concerto No. 21.

by Ken

Yes, in case you hadn't figured it out, our Friday night and Saturday night Vivaldi-concerto previews were heading us toward the composer's undisputed blockbuster, the ever-irresistible Four Seasons.

The numbers on Vivaldi (1678-1841) are kind of staggering: more than 500 concertos, a sizable body of instrumental chamber music, 46 operas, and a boatload of sacred choral works. No doubt a substantial edge is given to the concertos that are part of the much-circulated published sets of 12: La Cetra, Op. 3; L'Estro armonico, Op. 4; Il Cimento dell'armonia e dell'invenzione, Op. 8; and La Cetra, Op. 9. Of course by far the best-known are the first four concertos of Op. 8, The Four Seasons. I don't know whether Vivaldi himself understood how special these pieces are -- how specially and personally they continue to reach out to listeners over nearly three centuries.

We're going to let the American violinist Gil Shaham talk us through these incredibly much-loved works, via spoken commentaries, generously illustrated on his trusty fiddle, which he recorded when, aged 22, he recorded The Four Seasons with the chamber orchestra Orpheus, in 1993. (We're also going to hear that recording, after hearing the individual movements of each concerto.)

Gil Shaham (then 22) introduces Vivaldi and The Four Seasons.

Gil may have been right about the four accompanying sonnets having been written by Vivaldi, but as far as I know there's no evidence of that. In fact, the last I heard, the general feeling was that the poems were written after the concertos. (Their form, not surprisingly for sonnets of Italian origin, is the 4-4-3-3 Petrarchan rather than the 4-4-4-2 Elizabethan.) However, the composer seems to have been familiar with them and accepted their connection to his concertos.) I've never paid much attention to the poems, but the imagery in them can be helpful, especially as regards the way Italians, or at least these Italians, experience the seasons -- summer in particular emerges as closer to an affliction than an idyll.

Anyway, I'm including the poems, in translations by Gwyn Morris (for EMI) which attempt to mirror the word order, and thus the sequence of thoughts, of the originals.

VIVALDI: Il Cimento dell'armonia e dell'invenzione

(The Contest Between Harmony and Invention), Op. 8:

Nos. 1-4, Le quattro stagioni

(The Four Seasons)

1. SPRING

Spring has come and joyfully
the birds greet her with merry song,
and brooks blown by the breezes,
sweetly murmuring begin to flow.

Then come, covering the air with a black mantle,
lightning and thunder, chosen to herald her,
and when they cease, the tiny birds
take up again their melodious song.

And after, on the pleasant, flowery meadow,
to the cherished sough of leafy boughs,
sleeps the goatherd with his faithful dog at his side.

To the joyous sound of the pastoral pipe,
nymphs and shepherds dance in the beloved cottage
at the shining appearance of spring.

Concerto No. 1 in E, RV 269,
La Primavera (Spring)

At this point in even a fairly slapdash performance the opening bars of Spring have such a galvanizing effect on me that I can't fairly reckon how much is the music itself and how much its promise of 40 minutes' worth of musical delight. Still, for all the buoyant pleasure of the concerto's outer movements, it is once again -- as with most of the other Vivaldi concertos we've heard these last two nights -- the slow movement that really rivets my attention, and hints at the passionate admiration felt for Vivaldi by his great Northern contemporaries Bach and Handel. Of course beautiful music had been written before, but I don't think it's too fanciful to suggest that Vivaldi showed European composers how music could really sing.

1. Spring:
i. Allegro

Gil Shaham's commentary:

Josef Suk, violin; František Xaver Thuri, harpsichord; Prague Chamber Orchestra, Libor Hlaváček, cond. Supraphon, recorded Apr. 13-16, 1975

Alan Loveday, violin; Colin Tilney, harpsichord and organ continuo; Academy of St. Martin-in-the-fields, Neville Marriner, cond. Argo/Decca, recorded September 1969


TO CONTINUE READING ABOUT AND
LISTENING TO THE FOUR SEASONS --

please click through for the rest of Spring and the three remaining seasons (with many recordings, including what may be "the only Four Seasons you'll ever need") -- plus a bonus concerto.

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