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The four seasons

The musical work “The Four Seasons” appeared in 1725 under the original title “Le quattro stagioni” as the most famous work by Antonio Vivaldi. It is a collection of four violin concertos and forms the first four numbers of his Opus 8 “The Contest Between Harmony and Invention.” Each concerto represents a season: La Primavera- Spring, L’estate- Summer, L’autunno- Autumn, and L’iverno- Winter.

In the Quattro Stagioni, Vivaldi managed to pack the typical scenes and natural phenomena of the four seasons into twelve fantastic sound paintings. From the splashing of a stream, bird sounds, lightning and thunder, to buzzing flies and rustling winds. The listener’s imagination knows no bounds. For the Baroque era, in which concrete content was reserved only for opera, this was an absolute novelty! Each of the four violin concertos consists of three movements: two fast movements frame a slow movement. The outer movements of the Quattro Stagioni contain expressive images of the respective season.

The first movements include the characteristic sounds, from birds as harbingers of summer to singing peasants at a wine festival in autumn. Vivaldi also incorporated tonal colors, which conjure up a certain musical mood through the keys. Thus, the lovely E major represents spring, the G minor of summer the oppressive heat.

For autumn, he chose F major, the key of hunting horns and dance festivals, and the frosty winter is expressed by the F minor theme. However, the sophistication of “The Four Seasons” lies in the fact that the magic of each season can be felt by the listener even without detailed knowledge. While this masterpiece was particularly popular with audiences during Vivaldi’s lifetime, like most Baroque music, it fell into obscurity for nearly two centuries.

It was only with the rediscovery of the lost scores in 1927 that a Vivaldi renaissance began, which continues to this day. “The Four Seasons” became probably the most frequently performed music piece of the Baroque era.