Watch All of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Performed on Original Baroque Instruments

Antonio Vivaldi’s four seasons Due to its frequent appearances in movies and television commercials, it remains one of the most famous early 18th century works in the world.

When it debuted in 1725, four seasons He wowed his audience by telling a story without using a human voice. painted by Vivaldi Four existing sonnets He used strings to tell stories (probably from his own origins) filled with spring thunderstorms, summer sweltering heat, fall hunting and harvesting, and winter’s cold winds.

The composer interspersed the score with precisely placed sonnet lines, conveying the expectation that the musicians would use their instruments to sonically embody the experience being depicted.

For 200 years, musicians have remained faithful to Vivaldi’s original orchestration.

However, over the past 100 years, different instruments and interpretations have emerged. drum, synthesizerelectric guitar, Chinese flute, Indian sarangi, pair of Inuit throat singers, Japanese a cappella female choir, theremin and musical saw Among the people who stabbed four seasonsA napping goat, a barking dog, and a chirping bird.

Remembering that Vivaldi himself was a great innovator, we suggest that there is nothing wrong with taking a break from it all to revisit the original taste.

An early music ensemble based in San Francisco. voice of music Above, they accomplish this beautifully with a video playlist of live performances from 2015 to 2018. The four concertos have been edited to be presented in their traditional order.

Voices of Music co-directors David Taylor and Haneke van Prusdy contended that these high-quality audio recordings make listeners feel as if they were in the same room as the musicians and baroque instruments. as taylor said Early music America:

We did a test where we sat in the audience and listened to the mix. We stopped when it started to sound like we were sitting in the audience. I didn’t want something like a concert with a CD playing in the background.

Multiple fixed cameras allowed the performers, who were mostly standing, to discreetly observe their spontaneous physical reactions to the music and each other. It’s good to enjoy the fun sounds just with your ears, but please enjoy them with your eyes as well. It is a great pleasure to see these masters enjoying Vivaldi and each other.

Also, don’t miss the English translation of the sonnet. It is split into subtitles and timed to the exact location in which it appears in Vivaldi’s 300-year-old score.

spring:

Allegro — 0:00

Largo — 3:32

Allegro — 6:13

summer:

Allegro non malt — 10:09

Adagio — 15:31

Presto — 17:46

autumn:

Allegro — 20:42

Adagio malt — 26:14

Allegro — 28:25

winter:

Allegro non malt — 31:56

Largo — 35:29

Allegro — 37:25

Audience responses have been edited from the presentation above, but I would be careless if I did not instruct them to: playlist There, these virtuosos can be seen graciously accepting the applause of the audience who were lucky enough to see these performances in person.

Note: An earlier version of this post appeared on the site in 2021.

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