Vivaldi's Four Seasons have been a great success, renewed at every private listening and public performance, since two centuries and a half. It can be claimed without hesitation that there does not exist any work of the classical repertoire of equally great renown. An orchestra "a parti reali" needs therefore not justify the choice of this group of works of the Red Priest for its first appearance in the field of gramophone records, as it is the case with this recording.
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi, a grandson of Agostino's, was born in Venice on March 4th, 1678. His father, Giambattista, who was requested by Legrenzi to enter the Cappella of St. Mark in 1685, taught him to play violin (there is no evidence of other teachers) and was indeed a good teacher for Vivaldi, only at the age of ten, could take his father's place in the orchestra. Vivaldi, after a rapid rise through the minor orders, was ordained on March 23rd, 1703 and was then appointed teacher at the Ospedale della Pietà , a girl orphanage in Venice. How Vivaldi could thereafter attain the high level attested by musical history as a composer as well as his success as a teacher, witnessed by the contemporary chronicles, remains a mystery, as it is often the case with such geniuses as he was.
Vivaldi wrote a huge number of concertos, among which 22 for solo violin. Thirteen volumes were published during the composer's life, eight of them bearing no date. The four Concerti delle Stagioni are the first of the twelve concertos of Opera VIII , published in Amsterdam by Michel Charles Le Cène, a former partner of the famous Estienne Roger, who, some ten years before, had printed another celebrated collection of Vivaldi's, namely Opera III ovvero L'Estro Armonico . The full title of Op. VIII reads: Il Cimento dell'Armonia e dell'Inventione / Concerti a 4 e 5 / Consacrati all'Illustrissimo Signore / il Signor Venceslao Conte di Marzin / Da D. Antonio Vivaldi / Maestro in Italia dell'Illustrissimo Conte Sudetto / Maestro de' Concerti del Pio Ospitale della Pietà in Venetia / e Maestro di Capella di S. A. S. il Signor Principe Filippo langravio d'Hassia Darmistath / Opera Ottava, 2 libri, Le Cène, Amsterdam.
The printed edition was announced in the "Amsterdam Gazette" on Dec. 14th, 1725. The time of composition has not been ascertained, but Vivaldi can be supposed to have attended to The Four Seasons in Mantua, in 1720, when he was on Margrave Philip of Hessen-Darmstadt's service (Margrave Philip, the general of the imperial troops that had conquered the town, was the brother of the Landgrave, the prince reigning over Darmstadt, erroneously mentioned by Vivaldi in the dedication). In Mantua, where among other things he got acquainted with Anna Giraud, the singer who will always be at his side, at least as long as he was interested in the musical theatre, away from the busy and gossipy Venetian environment, he could perhaps look around and get inspiration from nature.
The musical evocation of nature's cycle is certainly intentional. However, the four rather trivial illustrative sonnets appear to have been added only subsequently, as confirmed by Vivaldi himself in his dedication to count Marzin. Indeed, any of the many versifiers of the time could have easily put into rhyme the hints offered by the musical speech, availing himself also of the composer's suggestions. Both sonnets and title, of course, had been a bright idea, considering the prevailing taste of those times, to place the concertos into the international market, so sensitive as it was to such picturesque calls. On the other hand, the way had been already paved for that. In the 16th century, Jean Claude Jannequin had written his Bird Song , possibly the first example of descriptive music. Imitations of animal voices were customary in the Italian music of the 17th century as well as in the French harpsichord school, with Couperin in the lead. Also some composers of operatic music, such as Draghi, Cavalli, and Marais, had successfully tried imitations of wind noise, storms, water rustling, and unfailingly Vivaldi has been the first one, however, to deal with such subjects in symphonic compositions, using only the orchestra. Moreover, in his Four Seasons the strings are the sole protagonists, without the contribution of either the wind or voices, which was something new in the history of descriptive music. J. J. Rousseau, the great assertor of the idea of art as an imitation of nature, appreciated The Four Seasons so much as to make an arrangement of the Spring for the flute, for his personal use, and Peter Ryom, an expert in Vivaldi's music and the author of the latest catalogue, suggests that the philosopher's aesthetic theory had been prompted by The Four Seasons. Anyway, the idea of nature as a primary source of inspiration for the artist dates from time immemorial. More than a century before Vivaldi, for instance, G. Arcimboldo (Milan, 1523-1593) had painted his whimsical allegories of the seasons, and something of that sort was done by the Flemish painters Rembrandt and Vermeer de Delft.
As a matter of fact, The Four Seasons , labelled as descriptive music, were welcomed everywhere and shortly after their publication Vivaldi's fame was decreed by general appreciation, such as kings', emperors', musicians', and music experts'. While Louis XV of France wished for a performance of the Spring, Carl VI of Austria knighted Vivaldi and, according to abbé Conti (1728) is said to have talked more with him in fifteen days than with his ministers in two years. Blainville (1754) spoke of Vivaldi as of a very fertile creator of images and skilful painter, whilst Michel Corrette, in 1766, adapted the Spring to a Laudate Dominum for a large chorus. In his pamphlet De Venise. Remarques sur la musique et la danse (1773), Ange Goudar mentions only Vivaldi and says: "...He has put the four seasons of the year into a great concert of violins. In his Spring one can feel Nature returning to life along with all living creatures breathing and rejoicing at the sound of the violin. His Summer is composed of a fervent music announcing an abundant harvest. In his Autumn, he makes leaves fall off the trees, if I can express myself so, with bow strokes . In his Winter his audience shivers, is dying of cold... Here are the true principles of instrumental harmony, which must render any subject!".
Telemann's Tageszeiten (1759) and Haydn's oratorio The Seasons (1800) are worth mentioning among the works created under an indirect influence of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, whilst a direct influence is to be found in Justin Heinrich Knecht's Portrait musical de la Nature ou Grande Symphonie (1784), from which Beethoven, who probably ignored even the name of Vivaldi, seems to have taken the first idea for his Pastoral Symphony. Towards the end of the century, however, the renown and even the memory of Vivaldi, as far as we know, are fading away. But after half a century's silence, the discovery in 1851 of a manuscript dating back to 1739, containing Vivaldi's twelve concertos arranged by Bach, amazes the music experts. Vivaldi's revival begins to bear fruit at the beginning of the 20th century and, in Italy, goes through more or less questionable experiences until a philological approach to ancient music is acquired. In fifty years or little more The Four Seasons pass from an arrangement for four hands of 1919 to the performances of various consorts and ensembles, all rigorously philological (and some of these maybe even too rigidly philological). The Four Seasons remain, of course, in a leading position. The diffusion of records secures them a popularity beyond expectation. More than fifty records appear only between 1972 and 1975.
Apart from history and anecdotes, however, it should be born in mind that The Four Seasons are of great musical value. Their structure is clearly modelled on the classical tripartition of the solo concerto (Allegro -Adagio -Allegro), the differences in the design being skilfully emphasised by Vivaldi. The Tutti parts ensure the movement stability and confer a particular colour while the solo parts enhance the soloist's highgrade virtuosity, derived from the vocal technique. Rhythmic vigour, the dynamism with which sound masses are opposed or put close to one another, as they were architectural masses, ornamentations, echoes, repetitions, and progressions full of expressiveness, like Bach's, are some of the more interesting aspects showing the composer's ability. Moreover, the deep expressiveness of the solo tunes in the slow movements reveal a spiritual dimension which, if not tormented, is neither indifferent nor superficial and can somehow be correlated to Händel's emotional sphere.
According to Talbot, The Four Seasons are characterised by a modern conception of "a human activity submitted to the uncontrollable game of natural elements". Finally, the following quotation from Carl De Nys may serve as a conclusion: "In the F minor concerto (the Winter ) -which is sometimes reputed of less value than the other three - the violin melody, over the string pizzicato, displays an utter desolation bordering on anguish. Who has said that this anguish is a mark of the present time's music? I can recognise it in the music of this Venetian abbé, who composed amongst the shining splendours of St. Mark and the Doges of the lagoon, but died alone, in great poverty, in Vienna (1741) and was hurriedly buried like a pauper, as Mozart was exactly fifty years later".
Anna Bergonzelli
