| Royal Classics |  |
| Disc No: ROY6461 | |
| Price: Sek. 51 |
Having already written literally hundreds of concerti for many instruments but primarily for his own, the violin, Vivaldi decided to crystallize something he had toyed with for many years: descriptive music. He mustered all his fertile imagination to produce a set of 12 Violin Concerti which he published under the name 'Conflict of Harmony and Invention', thus signalling that the rules to which he had hitherto adhered were about to be broken. Six of these concerti are descriptive, the first four depicting the seasons of the year. The sonnets he supplied give details of the events in these riot of descriptive invention. Spring enters joyfully, bringing birdsong. In the Largo a shepherd sleeps while his dog supplies well-behaved barks, and the finale is a dance of nymphs and sheperds in the warm sunshine. In Summer, the sun's heat becomes unbearable as man and animal sweat and languish. Thunder threatens in the Adagio, and the full fury of the elements is unleashed in the Presto. But Autuinn is a fruitful one, not least in the grape! Peasants endure weird alcoholic dreams in the Adagio molto but recover in time for the traditional Autumn cruelty: a stag hunt with guns and dogs. Winter finds the peasant inert with cold, then shivering and chattering his teeth, while the slow movement brings us indoors to a welkoming stove. At last, during a disastrous walk on the ice, with slips and falls, biting winds arise and, in conflict with a memory of Summer's zephyr, close the work tempestuously. Less riotous are The Storm at Sea, starting with vivid impressions of perilous weather and leading to apprehension and a final safe landfall; and The Hunt, more stylisted than that in Autumn but nonetheless evoking a scene of unnecessary slaughter which primitive man seems to love. Robert Dearling. Discontinued |
| Name: Vivaldi Four seasons | |
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| Order 2 CDs In stock |
| Composer | Opus | Produced | Music | Key | Performer |
| Vivaldi, Antonio | RV.269 | 1981 | Four seasons no. 1 'Spring' | E major | Polish Chamber Orcherstra - Jerzy Maksymiuk Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Violin |
| Vivaldi, Antonio | RV.293 | 1981 | Four seasons no. 3 'Autumn' | F major | |
| Vivaldi, Antonio | RV.297 | 1981 | Four seasons no. 4 'Winter' | F minor | |
| Vivaldi, Antonio | RV.315 | 1981 | Four seasons no. 2 'Summer' | G minor | |
| Vivaldi, Antonio | RV.253 | 1983 | Violin Concerto 'La Tempesta di Mare' | E flat major | |
| Vivaldi, Antonio | RV.362 | 1983 | Violin Concerto 'La Caccia' | B flat major |