Episode 11, 2020: Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons
Wednesday 9 September 2020
It was in 1725 in the city of Amsterdam when Venetian virtuoso and composer, Antonio Vivaldi’s Il cimento dell’armonia e inventione (The Contest between harmony and invention) was published. The composition was made up of twelve sets of concertos for violin, strings and continuo. Its first four concertos, dedicated to a particular season quickly became popular and have since become known as The Four Seasons, a division from the whole Vivaldi did not foresee. The Four Seasons disappeared in the concerto circles after Vivaldi’s death only to resurface in 1948 after a recording of it by American violinist, Louis Kaufman. Today it is considered one of the most recorded works of all time, with over 400 versions made by different musicians.
Some of the most interesting features about this Vivaldi composition are the introductory sonnets for each concerto believed to be written by Vivaldi himself. ANAM violinist Harry Ward thinks that each sonnet helps set the scene for each concerto so in 2019 when he performed and directed The Four Seasons at ANAM, Harry decided to have one person from the ensemble read the sonnet that accompanies each concerto. In this week’s episode of ANAM Radio, Harry and Phil Lambert (ANAM Music Librarian) chat about remarkable musical details of this classic masterpiece.
The Four Seasons performance featured in this episode is from Harry’s 2019 ANAM Recital with ANAM strings and Peter de Jager. Harry was recently recognised as one of Musica Viva’s FutureMakers.
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WATCH THE PERFORMANCE
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Catch the previous episode, ANAM Radio: Chopin’s Barcarolle
Listen to the next episode, ANAM Radio: de Falla's Concerto for Harpsichord
VIVALDI The Four Seasons
Harry Ward NSW violin/director
Meg Cohen NSW violin
Hana King NSW violin
Henry Justo QLD viola
Cora Fabri NSW viola
James Morley SA cello
Hamish Gullick NSW double bass
Kyla Matsuura-Miller (violin 2019)
Mana Ohashi (violin 2019)
Madeleine Jevons (violin 2014)
David Moran (cello 2019)
Jack Cross (guest) violin
Peter de Jager harpsichord
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