The Ultimate Vivaldi Quiz

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Antonio Lucio Vivaldi: an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque music. You may know his most famous work, but how much do you know about his life, family and death?

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and the Impact of Climate Change

by Hermione Lai , Interlude

The Four Seasons, the fabulous collection of four violin concerti by Antonio Vivaldi have topped the Classical Music charts for decades on end. It has become part of modern culture, and the music is reshaped and arranged into different musical styles and adapted for solo instruments other than violin.

Portrait of Antonio Vivaldi

Vivaldi gave each concerto the title of a specific season, and his music imitates the sounds of barking dogs, warbling birds, the icy paths across frozen water, and even the blazing temperatures of summer. It’s a delightful and charming nature painting in music. The music was composed roughly 300 years ago, but times are changing, and so is the climate. 

Simone Candotto, the solo trombonist of the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, was born in a town near Venice, Vivaldi’s place of work. And we all know that Venice is gradually sinking into the sea because of the consequences of climate change. As such, Candotto decided to let people hear the consequences of climate change by re-composing The Four Seasons using climate data.

Simone Candotto

He engaged a team of software developers and music arrangers, and with the aid of a specific algorithm, he modified the source material to reflect the consequences of climate change. Much of that algorithm is based on 300 years of climate data, incorporating the increase in greenhouse gas carbon dioxide over the past centuries to the present day.

You can hear these changes very clearly in the music, as the summer motif already sneaks into the score in the spring. The seasons are clearly changing, and the rise of the global CO2 curve results in the notes becoming longer. Candotto explains, “It’s a big deal because I think it has an impact. But above all, there are the themes from the other seasons that come in so imperceptibly. That gives the impression that things are no longer the same as they used to be.” 

Since there are 15 percent fewer birds chirping in the trees than in the time of Vivaldi, the algorithm uses 15 percent less of the bird motifs to indicate the extinction of species. Extreme weather is sharply increasing, and Vivaldi arrives in the present.

You can hear the solo violin continuing to play part of the Vivaldi “Winter” concerto while the orchestra sinks into dissonant lethargy. It’s almost like a metaphor, with people continuing to live as before while nature sinks into chaos due to man-made climate change.

The idea of using climate data to recompose Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” has also been taken up by composer Hugh Crosthwaite and Monash University’s Climate Change Communication Research Hub. This creation looks to portray a future where the world has failed to act on global warming. 

This reworking also features AI algorithms based on climate predictions for the year 2050. It is a musical design system “that combines music theory with computer modelling to algorithmically generate countless local variations of the Vivaldi composition.” That is, it can model climate predictions for every location on the planet.

Looking at climate data, the algorithm alters the musical score to account for predicted changes in rainfall, biodiversity, sea-level rise, and extreme weather events for the location of performance. In some locations, storms will be more intense, the sea level will be dangerously rising, and wildlife will disappear.

There is no doubt that climate change is unravelling our seasons, and Spanish music director Hache Costa has adopted Vivaldi’s most famous work to reflect the grim reality of global warming. “If someone were to compose The Four Seasons from an absolutely realistic perspective,” the composer writes, “the music would be much more aggressive and grittier.” 

Costa projects the effects of global warming by adding prominence and drama to the summer concerto while shortening the other three. This re-composition is accompanied by projected images of wildfires and other effects of climate change, including drought. As Costa explained, “I would love the audience to feel really bothered at some point by becoming truly aware of what is happening.”

Max Richter

Award-winning composer and pianist Max Richter is not attempting to shock his audience, but he is actually advocating dialogue instead. Classically trained, Richter graduated in composition from the Royal Academy of Music and studied with the legendary Italian composer Luciano Berio. He loved the Vivaldi original as a child, but hearing the music abused for various reasons and causes, “it becomes an irritant.”

So, he decided to recompose the music, and his “New Four Seasons” weaves and loops the music to become a conversation between instruments and also a dialogue between the two composers. “There are sections where I’ve left Vivaldi alone,” he explains, “and other bits where there is basically only a homeopathic dose of Vivaldi in completely new music.” When it comes to climate change, we need a global dialogue with everybody pulling at the same string, and hopefully, Vivaldi can bring us all together.

Why should you listen to Vivaldi's "Four Seasons"? - Betsy Schwarm

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-should-... Light, bright, and cheerful, "The Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivaldi is some of the most familiar of all early 18th century music, featured in numerous films and television commercials. But what is its significance, and why does it sound that way? Betsy Schwarm uncovers the underlying narrative of this musical masterpiece. Lesson by Betsy Schwarm, animation by Compote Collective.

9-year-old violin prodigy plays Max Richter’s thrilling take on Vivaldi ‘Summer’ in talent show finale

By Maddy Shaw Roberts

 

Here’s some Vivaldi-Richter violin magic, played by the youngest finalist of French TV talent show ‘Prodiges’, to blow you away.

In December, 9-year-old violinist Sora Lavorgna made it down to the finals of Prodiges, a French TV talent show judged by cello virtuoso Gautier Capuçon, along with a star opera singer and dancer.

The competition looks for the most promising young talents in three different categories, singing, instrument and dance, all performing to the sound of great works of classical music.

In her final performance, the young French Japanese violinist played contemporary classical composer Max Richter’s recomposition and reinterpretation of the talent show favourite ‘Summer’ from Vivaldi’s collection of Baroque concertos The Four Seasons.

‘Summer 1’ is all intricate ostinato and soaring solo violin lines, making it the perfect showpiece for any high-stakes competition final. Sora gave a stunning performance, displaying a warm vibrato and tone, and incredible musicianship for a player of her age.

During the competition, which also saw her play the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, Capuçon told her: “You impressed us, you show incredible concentration and determination for your nine years.”

Prodiges showcases 15 virtuosos aged nine to 16, whose performances are all accompanied by the Divertimento orchestra, under the baton of conductor Zahia Ziouani.

The jury is made up of three leading musical figures: Capuçon, prima ballerina and choreographer Marie-Claude Pietragalla, and soprano Julie Fuchs.  

For this ninth season of Prodiges, hosted by Faustine Bollaert, the final trophy was taken by 12-year-old ballet dancer Sacha, who also won the study grant of 10,000 euros. Sacha was told by Pietragalla: “You are dance-incarnate, you make me want to go dancing. You are beautiful, radiant, you have beautiful footwork, I would like to follow you.”

9-year-old violinist Sora Lavorgna plays Richter's 'Summer 1' in finals of 'Prodiges'. Picture: Prodiges/YouTube

Sora, who at nine years old was the youngest contestant in the entire competition, began playing the violin at age four at the Cannes Conservatory.

During the show, she explained that she practises the violin two hours a day and prior to Prodiges, had won the prestigious Arthur Grumiaux International Violin Competition in Belgium.

We look forward to seeing what else is in store for this brilliant young player.

Prodiges has not only put classical music front and centre on a major French TV channel, but has also produced some stars of the future and major recording contracts.

The debut album of violin and cello star Camille Berthollet, the 2014 winner of the show, went gold on Warner Classics in less than two months. She has since released six string duo albums alongside her sister, Julie Berthollet, with whom she also performed at Classic FM Live in 2021.

The Invisible Force: Wind

by Maureen Buja, Interlude

The elements of nature frequently are represented in music: water, snow, and, of course, wind. We looked at a number of different works that might, literally, blow us away. We never see the wind but only the effect of the wind. Composers give us the added dimension of being able to hear the wind.

In Lully’s 1674 opera Alceste, which tells the story of the Queen of Thessaly, Alceste, who has been abducted by the King of Scyros, together with the help of a sea nymphs and Aeolus, the god of winds. The North Wind is summoned to create a violent storm to help the kidnapper get away by sea and arrives with a swoosh.

Following this, the god Éole intervenes to calm the storm by sending the gentle West Wind to disperse the violent North Wind.

Lully: Alceste: The gods, the mortals, and the winds, 1708 (score, Paris, 2nd edition)

One of the common ways to show the winds was to combine them with a storm – we hear this in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and in Justin Heinrich Knecht’s orchestral work Le portrait musical de la nature (The Musical Portrait of Nature). Written in 1784–85 as a pastoral symphony, the symphony ends the second movement with a gathering of storm clouds and it is in the third movement that the storm breaks, with the wind whistling through the trees, and rain descending in torrents.

For Debussy, in his Préludes, Book 1, the West Wind is violent and savage. Moved from its piano original to the orchestra, the work seems to grow in stature. The title, Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest, makes us imagine just what is the West Wind bring with it: a storm and rain beat against a cliff. Nature is unleashed and all we can do is endure.

Storm

The French composer Tristan Murail picks up from Debussy’s vision of the west wind and gives us Dernières nouvelles du vent d’ouest (Latest News from the West Wind). The West Wind strikes France in Normandy and the news it carries from across the Atlantic isn’t always the best.

The Wind in Brittany

French composer Philippe Chamouard sought inspiration for the 1997 work Poème du vent (The Poem of the Wind) in a poem by Oshikhoshi Mitsume, which contrasts the scarlet leaves that are blowing in the wind with the image in the still water of the leaves still on the tree. The music makes the leaves fall downward to float away on the mirroring water.

Red leaves in water

Some composers don’t focus on one wind but invoke the wind from all directions. In his guitar work Si le jour parait… (If The Day Seems…), North African composer Maurice Ohana gives Jeu des quatre vents, the game of the four winds. He also pays tribute to Debussy’s piece to the west wind, by instructing the performer with these directions: Animé, tumultueux, commencez un peu au-dessous du mouvement (Animated, tumultuous, begin a little below the tempo), the same words used by Debussy in his score.

In the fifth of his Six Sonnets for violin and piano from 1922, Catalan composer Eduardo Toldrà invokes a sonnet by the poet Padre Antonio Navarro in his Dels quatre vents (Of the Four Winds). At the beginning of the score, Toldrà gives us the 14-line sonnet that inspired him (‘Dia fervent d’agost era aquell dia…’) invoking a hot day in August, under a serene blue sky, with cicadas singing and two white doves overhead.

The winds blow, sometimes violently and sometimes gently, but always invisibly. We can only see the effect of the wind, not the wind itself.

Four Seasons ~ Vivaldi - his life and his music

245,146,692 views Jan 31, 2011 Antonio Vivaldi - Four Seasons Budapest Strings Bela Banfalvi, Conductor You can get the exact album I have here on Amazon: http://amzn.to/1I2dNNu (affiliate). Here are the times for the specific movements: Spring 0:00 Summer 10:31 Autumn 20:59 Winter 32:48 I hope you love this recording! It is my favorite one I've heard yet. Happy Listening!

Antonio Vivaldi was born 1678 in Venice (the exact date is unknown) and passed away on July 28, 1741 in Vienna/Austria. He was an Italian composer and violinist and became a violinist pupil of the great Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-1690). In 1703, Vivaldi was ordained as priest and has been nick-named as the "red haired priest" (Il prete rosso). 1716, he became principal of the music school for girls in Venice. He loved to travel extensively and became one of the first composers of his time. He was one of the first composers, using clarinets and composed fantastic chamber music, secular cantatas, church music, oratorio, and operas. Despite tremendous output, he was by no means a conventional composer, and much of instrumental works show a lively and fertile imagination. As with Bach, Vivaldi's music was unfashionable and unpopular or many years; however, since the 1950s, there has been enormous revival of interest in Vivaldi's music especially in Europe, and later followed also in the USA. Especially his cincerts, among which four works for violin, collectively known as "The Four Seasons", have become particularly popular. Appreciating Vivaldi's originality and diversity is to get beyond the form, and to listen to his fresh and melodic writings. Vivaldi invented a a structure for his conciertos that served him very we. No two pieces are exactly the same, and the combination of structural discipline and melody freedom is the hallmark of musical greatness from any period. Vivaldi composed 49 operas, 22 pieces only for the town of Venice. Johann Sebastian Bach admired Vivaldi so much, that he rearranged some compositions of Vivaldi and felt very much inspired for more wonderful compositions. Vivaldi died in Vienna in totally poverty.

Antonio Vivaldi - Seine Musik und sein Leben Vivaldi wurde 1678 in Venedig geboren. Sein Vater war Barbier und spielte im Orchester der Kathedrale von San Marco Violine. Sein Leben lang hatte Vivaldi gesundheitliche Probleme. Er litt an einer chronischen Krankheit, wahrscheinlich Herzschwäche oder einer Form von Asthma. Sein musikalisches Talent trat früh hervor. Schon als Kind sprang er gelegentlich im Orchester von San Marco für seinen Vater ein. Hier geriet er auch in den Zauberbann venezianischer Musik, die ihn später bei seinen eigenen Kompositionen so sehr beeinflussen sollte. Im Alter von 14 Jahren trat Vivaldi in die Priesterlaufbahn ein, für die ihn der Vater bestimmt hatte. Mit 25 wurde er zum Priester geweiht. Zu seinen Hauptpflichten gehörte das Zelebrieren der Messe, wobei er jedesmal fast eine Stunde lang singen musste. Wegen seiner Erkrankung gab er diese Tätigkeit nach einem Jahr wieder auf. Von weitaus größerem Interesse war für ihn seine Tätigkeit als Violin-Lehrer am Ospedale della Pietà in Venedig, in dem verwaiste und unehelich geborene Mädchen erzogen wurden. Vivaldi brachte ihnen das Geigenspiel bei. Er komponierte auch neue Stücke, die die Mädchen einmal die Woche bei ihren Konzerten vortrugen. Wahrscheinlich sicherte ihm seine Priesterwürde diese Tätigkeit, da man von einem Priester erwartete, dass er die Grenzen der Schicklichkeit wahrte. Vivaldi verbrachte 12 glückliche Jahre am Ospedale. Den jungen Mädchen gefiel seine galante, charmante Art, und da von Natur aus extrovertiert, genoss Vivaldi seinerseits die Aufmerksamkeit, die ihm entgegengebracht wurde. Der Spitzname "Roter Priester" passte nicht nur zu seiner Haarfarbe, sondern auch zu seinem sprühenden Temperament. Die Konzerte, bei denen er seine Kompositionen dirigierte, waren musikalische Höhepunkte im venezianischen Kulturleben. Kaum ein Besucher der Stadt ließ sich ein Vivaldi-Konzert entgehen. Während dieser Zeit wurde Vivaldi sich seines steigenden Ansehens bewusst und beschloss, daraus Kapital zu schlagen. Als erstes suchte er sich einen Verleger in Amsterdam, der über bessere Druckmöglichkeiten von Noten verfügte als die Venezianer. Das bedeutete: Er konnte seine Werke besser verkaufen und mehr Geld verdienen. Außerdem begann er, Opern zu schreiben. Seine erste Oper "Ottone in Villa" führte er 1713 auf. Schon bald komponierte er Opern für Theater-Direktoren im ganzen Nordosten Italiens. Die langen Abwesenheiten verärgerten seine Arbeitgeber am Ospedale. 1723 wurde ein Abkommen getroffen: Es gab Vivaldi die Freiheit, an Opern zu arbeiten, vorausgesetzt, er liefere in Venedig zwei Konzerte im Monat ab und überwache ihre Aufführungen. Vivaldi arbeitete schnell. Für ein Concerto brauchte er einen Tag, eine Oper schaffte er in einer Woche. Er verdiente viel Geld und gab viel aus. Deshalb sah er sich nach weiteren Verdienstquellen um und beschloss, dass es lukrativer sei, Abschriften der Noten direkt zu verkaufen, als über seinen Verleger. Als Preis berechnete er eine Guinee pro Concerto, umgerechnet etwa 150 Euro. Den Kirchenvätern wurde die allzu weltliche Einstellung Vivaldis bald suspekt. Als Priester wurde von ihm erwartet, in einem reinen Männerhaushalt zu leben. Seine Krankheit bot ihm den idealen Vorwand, eine Schwester zu seiner Pflege einzustellen. Außerdem machte er Anna Giraud, eine bekannte Sopranistin, und ihre Schwester zu seinen Begleiterinnen. Es gab Gerüchte, aber ein Verhältnis konnte ihm nicht nachgewiesen werden. 1737, im Zuge einer Kampagne gegen den Sittenverfall im Klerus, verbot ihm der Erzbischof von Ferrara, die Stadt zu betreten. Hier sollte er die musikalische Leitung während der Opernsaison innehaben. Als Gründe wurden Vivaldis Weigerung, die Messe zu zelebrieren, und seine Beziehung zu Anna Giraud angeführt. Der 59jährige bestritt jegliches unziemliche Verhalten und brachte zur Verteidigung seine Krankheit vor, ohne Erfolg. Von nun an nahm sein Ansehen rasch ab. Bis 1740 hatte sich der venezianische Geschmack geändert. Vivaldis Musik war aus der Mode gekommen. Er ging nach Wien in der Hoffnung, den österreichischen Kaiser für neue Aufträge zu gewinnen, erhielt aber kaum Beachtung. Alt und krank starb er am 28. Juli 1741 in Wien. Er hatte zuletzt in sehr ärmlichen Verhältnissen gelebt und wurde mit einem Armenbegräbnis beigesetzt. Trotz der überragenden Qualität seines Werkes - das über 450 Concerti und 45 Opern umfasst - und Vivaldis Bestrebungen, es zu verbreiten, wurde nur ein Bruchteil zu seinen Lebzeiten veröffentlicht. Die meisten Kompositionen wurden nach seinem Tod entdeckt, viele erst in den zwanziger Jahren dieses Jahrhunderts bekannt. Seine neue Herangehensweise an die Musik des Barock hat Vivaldi in einer Reihe glanzvoller Kompositionen bewiesen. Die heitere Lebhaftigkeit seiner Musik lässt das prächtige und schillernde Venedig des 18. Jahrhunderts wieder aufleben.

The Sound of Summer Rain in Classical Music Vivaldi, Rameau, Beethoven, Grofé and Whitacre

by Maureen Buja, Interlude  

 

Channeling the sound and fury of nature through an orchestra gives everyone, from the composer to the conductor to the orchestra (primarily the string section) a thorough workout.

Antonio Vivaldi: The Four Seasons – Violin Concerto in G Minor, Op. 8 (Summer)

© unripecontent.com

One of the most familiar of storms is in the third movement of Vivaldi’s Summer concerto from the Four Seasons (1720).

The sonnet that goes with the concertos sets this up at the end of the first verse: ‘Soft breezes stir the air, but threatening | the North Wind sweeps them suddenly aside. |The shepherd trembles, | fearing violent storms and his fate’. And then, in the 3rd verse: ‘The Heavens thunder and roar and with hail | Cut the head off the wheat and damages the grain’. And starting with rain in the violins, the heavens open.

Jean-Philippe Rameau: Platée – Act I Scene 6 – Orage

Jean-Paul Fouchécourt as Platée, 2000 (City Opera)

In Rameau’s 1745 opera Platée, two storms set the beginning and end of Act I. In an attempt to cure Jupiter’s wife of her jealousy, Mercury comes and tells the king of Greece that the opening storm has been caused by Juno’s jealousy. The King proposes a false love affair between Jupiter and Platée, a marsh nymph of outstanding ugliness.

Every time Juno is angered, another storm breaks out and the one at the end of Act I is a magnificent work of lightning flashes and drowning rain.

Rameau wrote the work for the wedding celebrations of Louis, Dauphin of France, son of King Louis XV of France, to the Infanta Maria Theresa of Spain. Despite having an opera based on marital infidelity and deceiving one’s spouse, the opera was popular and resulted in Rameau’s appointment shortly after the celebration to the position of Composer of the King’s Chamber Music.

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F Major, “Pastoral” – IV. Thunderstorm: Allegro

© behance.net

For his fourth movement Thunderstorm in his Pastoral Symphony, Beethoven used an orchestra that could do thunder (cellos and double basses), rain (violins), more thunder (timpani), lightning strikes (piccolo), and all of the other accompanying sounds and actions of a really good storm. At the end, the storm passes, with occasional grumbles of thunder in the distance.

Ferde Grofé: Grand Canyon Suite – V. Cloudburst

Ferde Grofé’s 1931 work The Grand Canyon Suite, gives us the sound and fury of a storm in the American West. The previous movement was Sunset and so this movements continues the stillness until suddenly, there are flashes of lightning, down bursts of rain in the piano, thunder in the timpani, and suddenly, we’re in the middle of a full-blown storm. But, as the title says, it’s a cloudburst so just a quick 3-minute flash storm, and then the sunset returns, fighting its way through the clouds.

Eric Whitacre: Cloudburst

Although we’ve seen how orchestras create rainstorms, one of the most innovative of modern composers, Eric Whitacre, has given us a magnificent choral storm in his 1991 work Cloudburst. The song text by Octavio Paz is El cántaro roto (The Broken Water-Jar) and is a reflection on water and no water, dust and the burnt earth, until the rain awakens. The chorus is augmented by two thunder sheets and a bass drum, but it is the chorus itself, through finger snaps and hand claps, that brings the storm to us and then it recedes.

Cloudbursts, slashing rain, echoing thunder, and bright flashes are these rainstorms. Use it to cool off from the summer heat, or to water the thirsty plants. It can be a welcome relief or an overwhelming flood, but no matter where it comes, it’s necessary to all life.

17 Amazing Facts About Vivaldi

Most violinists and musicians are familiar with the beautiful series of violin concertos, The Four Seasons, crafted by the master baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi. However, not everyone is familiar with some of the most interesting aspects of his life. One of which is that this musical genius narrowly missed being buried in oblivion more than once.

Vivaldi must have been destined for greatness by virtue of his ground shaking birth and the fortune of being rediscovered by a caring patron of music history years after his death. Indeed, there’s more to Vivaldi’s life than simply his most recognized violin and orchestral compositions. The following Vivaldi facts and trivia have been gleaned from various historical biographies and similar sources.

On the day of his birth, March 4, 1678, a large earthquake occurred in Venice.

Young Antonio was taught to play the violin by his father, a professional violinist who was also a barber. Father and son toured Venice playing violin together.

At age 15, he began studies to become a priest and was nicknamed Il prêt Rosso, or The Red Priest. It is speculated that this was due to his red hair, which was a family trait.

Vivaldi suffered from a form of asthma which limited his duties administering Mass but gave him more time to spend writing music.

He produced many of his major works while employed for approximately 30 years as a master violinist at the Ospedale della Pieta, a home for abandoned children. The boys were taught a trade. The female orphans received expert musical instruction and became members of the choir and orchestra. Their performances were well respected all around the region.

His famous set of 4 violin concertos, The Four Seasons, (1723) is considered to be an outstanding example of program music. Each concerto depicts a scene appropriate for each season and is accompanied by a written description.

J.S. Bach was a huge fan of Vivaldi’s music. He transcribed several of Vivaldi’s concerti for keyboard, strings, organ and harpsichord.

The musical compositions of Vivaldi total 500 concertos, 90 sonatas, 46 operas and a large body of sacred choral works and chamber music.

Vivaldi was commissioned to create music for European nobility and royalty. The well recognized Cantata; Gloria, was written for the celebration of the marriage of Louis XV in 1725. Additional pieces were written for the birth of the French royal princesses and Vivaldi was given the title of knight from Emperor Charles VI of Vienna.

Vivaldi relocated to Vienna at the invitation of Charles VI who died shortly after, leaving Vivaldi with no one to support him. However, because his music had not kept up with the times, he was forced to sell off his compositions in order to live.

Unfortunately, Vivaldi died a pauper and was given a simple burial. The master musician was not even afforded music at his own funeral, only the peeling of bells at St. Stephen’s Cathedral noted his passing.

Interestingly, the young composer Joseph Haydn, employed at the cathedral, had nothing to do with this burial since no music was performed.

His complete catalogue of music was not fully realized until 1926. A large collection of manuscripts were discovered in a boarding school in the Piedmont, diligently researched and procured by Dr. Alberto Gentili, a music historian at the University of Turin.

World War II stopped the momentum of the Vivaldi renaissance with burned out warehouses and printing presses. Little by little, though, newly discovered Vivaldi items began to appear and spread across Europe.

By 1951, London hosted the great postwar Festival of Britain presenting a concert season devoted mostly to the baroque master and firmly secured his place in music history.

2006 was the most recent discovery of a lost piece, Vivaldi’s opera, Argippo, which had last been performed in 1730.

His life and times have been documented in a 2005 movie, Vivaldi, A Prince in Venice, and a radio play for ABC Radio that same year. It was later adapted into a stage play entitled The Angel and the Red Priest.

Vivaldi was an innovator in Baroque music and he was influential across Europe during his lifetime. As a composer, virtuoso violinist, pedagogue, and priest, his life and genius influenced a number of notable artists. However, because of struggles later in life, his music was nearly lost to obscurity. Thankfully, the meticulous efforts of diligent researchers have ensured that his great body of music will be available to inspire countless, future generations of musicians.

Check out these two examples of Vivaldi’s most celebrated compositions, Vivaldi Four Seasons performed by I Musici, in 1988, and Musica Intima & Pacific Baroque Orchestra performing Gloria.

Published by Revelle Team on May 24, 2016

The Story Behind Vivaldi's Four Seasons

Antonio Vivaldi (1678 - 1741)  was a prolific, 18th-century Baroque composer who wrote more than 500 concertos. About 230 of those concertos were written for the violin. The most famous of all of Vivaldi’s works is "The Four Seasons” (“Le quattro stagioni”) violin concerto.

Vivaldi’s "Four Seasons": a radical violin concerto

Young people in the 21st-century can have a difficult time envisioning any piece of music as “radical.” In the world of contemporary pop culture, “radical” music means the inclusion of profanity, pejoratives, or rebellious language and sentiments. 

During the Baroque period, the idea of radical music was anything that veered from the traditional way of doing things. Other “radical” classical composers of their time periods include Mozart and Stravinsky. Unlike those composers, however, historians cannot claim that Vivialid’s “The Four Seasons” caused any riots. That said, the first performances in Italy, France, and throughout the European continent had frequent concert-attendees and music theorists up in arms about what to make of his newfangled musical notions.

Vivaldi’s inventive music program

One of the reasons Vivaldi’s Four Seasons was so unique is that it was one of the first classical compositions to implement and follow a dynamic music program. You’re probably familiar with the concept of a “music program,” where the music aligns with a specific text. In fact, that style of performance wasn’t made popular until the Romantic era. 

“The Four Seasons” movements are actually part of a larger body of 12 total concertos, including "The Four Seasons." The larger work is called, “Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’inventione,” or, “The Contest Between Harmony and Invention.”

Speaking of invention and innovation...

While the program format was one “radical” innovation implemented by Vivaldi, so were some of the techniques required by Vivaldi to play the piece. While he was a lover of opera, the brilliant mind of Vivaldi was captivated by the idea of being able to describe landscapes or scenes in ways that correlated with human behavior and emotions, but without setting the music to specific words.

So, while "The Four Seasons" were composed to honor the themes put forth in the previously-linked sonnets, Vivaldi composed the music in such a way that the technical playing and interpretations of the string musicians told the story - sans narration. 

He also included unique dynamic instructions that remain intact in the scores today. The musicians get to use their imaginations, and the imagination of the conductor, to interpret what Vivaldi imagined in his head when he wrote notes to the musicians. For example, asking violinists to play “like a sleeping goatherd” or the viola players to imagine “a barking dog.”

Also worth noting is that the concerto format as we know it didn’t really exist at this time. It was actually Vivaldi, and pieces like "The Four Seasons" setting solo instruments apart (frequently the violin) supported by a chamber ensemble, that gave rise to the concerto form we’re familiar with today.

Part of an early feminist movement

Besides Vivaldi’s musical genius and passion for opera, his appreciation for women and what they could set Vivaldi apart from many of his contemporaries. Vivaldi composed "The Four Seasons" between 1720 and 1723 while employed at “El Pio Ospedale della Pieta,” which was a girls school dedicated to orphaned girls. He worked as the Maestro de Violino (violin teacher) there and wrote some of his most famous works during that period of time. 

While we can’t say that he was truly a feminist, we can’t help but appreciate that Antonio Vivaldi spent a significant portion of his working life (1703 - 1733) mentoring talented young female musicians. And, with talent and fame such as his, he certainly had a choice in the matter. 

In honor of that, we recommend giving yourself the 48 minute and 54 second gift of the very talented female violinist, Janine Jansen as she plays Antonio Vivaldi’s “"The Four Seasons"” at Internationaal Kamermuziek Festival 2014. Enjoy listening to a narrative that Vivaldi’s musical genius brings to life in the mind’s eye.

Published by StringOvation Team on April 07, 2021

Vivaldi’s ‘infuriating’ Four Seasons

... dropped as hold music by Government hotline

Vivaldi 'Spring' is no longer DWP's hold music. Picture: Getty

By Maddy Shaw Roberts, ClassicFM London

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Callers waiting to speak to the Department of Work and Pensions will no longer hear music from the Baroque masterpiece, after saying they couldn’t deal... ‘Viv-al-di’ repetition.

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons has been dropped by the Department of Work and Pensions as its on-hold music, after callers said the repetitive clip was making them feel anxious. Callers waiting to speak to an adviser about a benefits problem have heard a 30-second loop of ‘Spring’, the first concerto in the great Italian composer’s masterpiece, for nearly 15 years.

But with millions of callers on hold for up to an hour, many people were hearing the clip up to 120 times in a row. One user called the DWP’s choice of music a “cruel and unusual punishment”.

“We had some feedback that the Vivaldi clip caused anxiety for claimants and in particular had an impact on autistic callers,” a DWP spokesperson said.

The Department has said ‘Spring’ will be replaced by a ‘calming’ 20-minute mix of eight unnamed musical tracks that aims to reduce callers’ anxiety by creating “a steady and neutral pace and reducing the issue of repetition”.

“We tested it with claimants in job centres and they overwhelmingly preferred it,” a DWP spokesperson said. “It was seen as more calming and peaceful and light. One person said, ‘I loved The Four Seasons, it’s a lovely piece of music’, but most preferred the new music.”

The DWP has used ‘Spring’ as its on-hold music since 2006. They called it a ‘cost-effective solution’, explaining that while the music would usually be funded by taxpayer money, they were licensed to play the Vivaldi for free.

But while the average helpline on-hold time is eight minutes, waiting times can go up to an hour. The repetitive music appears to have caused unnecessary anxiety for those calling about an often stressful matter.

“Queue times can be long, longer than the whole symphony on occasion, and callers are required to listen to the same sample, interspersed with the same recorded message, for infuriating periods of time,” it said.

“The false jollity of the piece in question, combined with the repetition involved in the short sample length, is largely at odds with the motives of people ringing the line, usually because of a problem with receipt of benefits.”