The Four Seasons, composed in 1723, is one of Baroque legend Vivaldi's most famous works for violin. Here's a very special performance of one of the movements, from one of Europe's top chamber orchestras.
We usually associate Vivaldi with Venice and the Italian sun. However, an orchestra has taken 'Winter' from The Four Seasons and turned it into something quite different.
The Arctic Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra decided to perform this masterpiece in one of the most northern places on Earth, Telegrafbukta, Tromsø, deep above the Arctic Circle in Norway. The orchestra's Artistic Director and star violinist Henning Kraggerud performs the solo passages in a separate shot, filmed in the snow, ice and magical arctic light.
🎵 Buy the MP3 album on the Official Halidon Music Store: Stream it on Spotify: iTunes & Apple Music: http. Four Seasons Arts. Is a classical music-presenting organization that seeks to reflect the total community in its audience and roster of performing artists. Keep the Arts Flourishing During COVID. During this time of COVID-19 related changes, we are re-thinking ways to keep the Arts flourishing. Four Seasons Arts wants to address our mutual need. The Four Seasons (Italian: Le quattro stagioni) is a set of four violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi. Composed in 1723, The Four Seasons is Vivaldi's best-known work, and is among the most popular pieces of Baroque music. The texture of each concerto is varied, each resembling its respective season.
There's much more from the Arctic Philharmonic on their YouTube channel (the sound engineer for this incredible video was Asle Karstad, the video creator and editor was Håvard Bilsbak).
4 Seasons By Vivaldi
More about these incredible concertos...
Vivaldi wrote so many concertos that, much like Haydn and his symphonies, he tended to resort to nicknames rather than numbers, for ease. Each concerto of his Four Seasons corresponds to a different season – so it's easy to guess how he nicknamed this particular work.
Who Wrote The 4 Seasons Classical Music
The music is accompanied by beautiful Italian sonnets, possibly written by Vivaldi himself after he was inspired by painter Marco Ricci's paintings of the seasons. It's even customary in some concerts that a narrator reads the poems before the performance, to bring the musical story to life.
Listen out for the texture of the music representing winter, with the high-pitched plucking from the strings sounding a bit like cold and icy rain. There are also more descriptive labels dotted throughout the movements: the second movement of Spring is part-labelled 'the barking dog', while one section of Autumn says 'the drunks have fallen asleep'. You might even hear a passionate thunderstorm in Summer, with the balmy music representing a warm August evening.
“Spring” is the first concerto for violin and orchestra from the opera “The Four Seasons” by Antonio Vivaldi. This work describes birds singing (Allegro), the shepherd resting with his dog (Largo) and the final dance (Allegro) all inspired by the Spring. Playing completely this work by Vivaldi with classical guitar requires considerable skill, but there are also simpler versions where you find the main theme.
If you love orchestral music played with classical guitar I will also want to recommend my work “Air on the G String” (Bach) with Pythagorean tuning that you can rarely hear in music like this.
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Author
Wenz
Guitarist, Composer
Music and Awareness
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4 Seasons Classical Music
Video: The Four Seasons – Spring – A.Vivaldi