The Four Seasons

Vivaldi, Antonio

album cover

To Everything, There Is a Season

A few notes into the sprite-like "La primavera," the opening theme of this violin concerto, and you might find yourself anticipating a public television pledge drive, or a BBC Special Report, or some Saturday Night Live parody of uppercrust snobbery. It's been used that way so often, it's come to represent everything starchy and pretentious. That's not fair to Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741), the Italian composer whose repertoire includes animated concertos and beautiful choral works. An ordained priest who spent much of his professional life at a school for orphaned girls in Venice, Vivaldi has of course had no control over the modern-day appropriation (and misappropriation) of his most famous piece. Consider it a price of fame.

Those who know only the haughty soundbite may be surprised to discover there's really cool, picturesque music inside The Four Seasons. Unlike Bach and other Germanic baroque composers, Vivaldi came up with scintillating melodies, and sent them out into the world with just enough fanfare to perk up listeners' ears. He didn't often engage in discursive "elaborations" on the themes, choosing instead to move quickly on to the next one. The most vivid moments in this piece, generally considered his best, seize upon specific aspects of each season: When the winds pick up in the winter section, they register as lashing, stabbing sounds, like ice hitting a roof. The summer section, "L'estate," opens in a thick slow mood, a listlessness brought on by heat. Later in the season, a joyous, scampering game of chase breaks out; in one particular highlight of this recording, the Dutch violinist Janine Jansen interprets the passage with a wildcatting, almost hyperalert, animation.

Jansen's rendering of Vivaldi, with a small chamber group that includes several members of her family, has little of the condescending "let me show you baroque" affectation of some modern concert soloists. Though gifted as an instrumentalist, Jansen's most valuable asset may be curiosity: Using exacting articulation, Jansen plays as though imagining what these pieces might have sounded like echoing through the parlors and ballrooms of Venice. Sometimes she disregards the composer's tempo markings, adding slight rallentandos and telling pauses. With those "loosening up" effects, Jansen brings Vivaldi's melodies out of that metric uniformity that can make baroque a code-crunching exercise, and into a more open, flowing atmosphere where their musical riches can blossom.

Genre: Classical
Released: 2005, Decca
Key Tracks: "L'estate," "L'inverno."
Catalog Choice: Dixit Dominus RV 807, Körnerscher Sing-Verein Dresden (Peter Koop, cond.).
Next Stop: George Frideric Handel: Water Music
After That: Lorraine Hunt Lieberson: Handel Arias
Book Page: 835