44 Fun Facts About Vivaldi's Four Seasons

Which instrument takes the solo part in The Four Seasons?

Violin takes the solo line in every concerto of the set, which is scored for solo violin, strings and basso continuo and showcased Vivaldi's own virtuosity.

In which city were The Four Seasons first published, in 1725?

Amsterdam, then Europe's leading centre of music engraving, saw the set appear in 1725 alongside eight other concertos in the same twelve-concerto collection.

The Four Seasons form the first four concertos of a set of twelve whose title translates as what?

The Contest Between Harmony and Invention is the usual rendering of Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione, the twelve-concerto set of 1725 that opens with The Four Seasons.

What opus number carries The Four Seasons?

Op. 8 is the twelve-concerto set of 1725 that opens with The Four Seasons; its other concertos include 'La tempesta di mare' and 'La caccia'.

Unusually for the period, Vivaldi published each concerto alongside what?

A sonnet accompanies each concerto, describing its scenes line by line; the poems' author is unknown, though many scholars believe Vivaldi wrote them himself.

How many movements does each of the four concertos have?

Each concerto has 3 movements in the fast–slow–fast pattern standard for Vivaldi's concertos, and the accompanying poem is divided to match them.

In the slow movement of Spring, while the goatherd sleeps, which instruments imitate his barking dog?

The violas play the insistent two-note figure that Vivaldi marked 'il cane che grida' (the barking dog) beneath the soloist's lullaby-like melody in the Largo.

Because they depict creeks, birds, storms and drunken dancers, The Four Seasons are an early example of what genre?

Program music depicts scenes or stories without words; The Four Seasons, with score markings for birdsong, a thunderstorm and a barking dog, are a celebrated early example.

While court chapel master in which city did Vivaldi compose The Four Seasons?

Mantua was where Vivaldi served Prince Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt as maestro di cappella da camera from 1718 to 1720, the years in which the concertos are usually dated.

In which key is the Spring concerto, RV 269?

E major is the key of the Spring concerto, RV 269, whose bright opening ritornello is among the most recognisable passages in eighteenth-century music.

In which key is the Winter concerto, RV 297?

F minor is the key of the Winter concerto, RV 297; its opening Allegro non molto, with shivering repeated chords under a soaring solo, is the set's darkest music.

To whom did Vivaldi dedicate the set containing The Four Seasons?

Wenceslas, Count of Morzin, a Bohemian nobleman and imperial chamberlain, received the dedication; Vivaldi's preface notes the count had already known the four concertos for some years.

Which publisher's workshop issued The Four Seasons in 1725?

Michel-Charles Le Cène, son-in-law and successor of Estienne Roger, issued the twelve concertos of Il cimento from the Roger firm's workshop in 1725.

Roughly how long does a performance of all four concertos take?

About 40 minutes is typical: Spring runs roughly 10 minutes, Summer and Autumn about 11 each and Winter about 9, though tempos vary widely between performances.

By what nickname was Vivaldi known?

Il Prete Rosso (The Red Priest) was the nickname Vivaldi carried from his years as a newly ordained priest, and it followed him through his long career at the Ospedale della Pietà.

Vivaldi's nickname referred to the colour of what?

His hair was red, a family trait said to be shared with his father Giovanni Battista, and it earned the young priest-composer his lasting nickname.

In which city was Antonio Vivaldi born in 1678?

Venice was his birthplace, on 4 March 1678; he was baptised at home at once by the midwife, probably for poor health, though legend blames an earthquake that day.

What kind of institution was the Ospedale della Pietà, where Vivaldi worked for decades?

A home for abandoned children, the Pietà took in foundlings and schooled them; Vivaldi taught and composed there on and off from 1703 until 1740.

Vivaldi's lifelong 'tightness of the chest' is now usually interpreted as which condition?

Asthma is the modern reading of his 'strettezza di petto'; the complaint kept him from wind instruments and was his stated reason for giving up saying Mass.

In which city did Vivaldi die, impoverished, in 1741?

Vienna, where he had gone hoping for imperial patronage, is where Vivaldi died on 28 July 1741 in a house owned by a saddlemaker's widow, and was given a simple burial.

At what age was Vivaldi ordained a priest?

He was 25 when ordained in 1703, ten years after beginning his training for the priesthood at fifteen while still living at home.

The Spring concerto borrows motifs from a sinfonia in which contemporaneous Vivaldi opera?

Il Giustino, staged in Rome in 1724, has a sinfonia sharing its opening material with the Spring concerto; the direction of borrowing between opera and concerto is debated.

Vivaldi himself re-scored the Spring Allegro as an opening sinfonia and chorus for which of his operas?

Dorilla in Tempe, first staged in 1726, opens with a sinfonia and chorus built from the Spring Allegro, a year after the concerto had appeared in print.

Which Enlightenment philosopher published a flute version of the Spring concerto in 1775?

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, himself a composer, issued 'Le printemps de Vivaldi' for unaccompanied flute in 1775; Nicolas Chédeville had arranged the set for hurdy-gurdy in 1739.

Nigel Kennedy's blockbuster 1989 recording of The Four Seasons was made with which ensemble?

English Chamber Orchestra accompanied Kennedy on the EMI recording, which was marketed like a pop album with a promotional single, billboards and TV and radio advertising.

Which violinist made the first American recording of The Four Seasons in the last week of 1947?

Louis Kaufman recorded it with Henry Swoboda conducting, then tracked down the rest of the set and became the first to record all twelve concertos, in Zürich in 1950.

Where was the 1947 American recording made, rushed through before the 1 January 1948 recording ban?

Carnegie Hall in New York hosted the sessions in late December 1947; the result won the 1950 Grand Prix du Disque and later joined the National Recording Registry.

Which Italian ensemble, starting with Felix Ayo in 1955, has recorded The Four Seasons most often?

I Musici first recorded the work with Felix Ayo in 1955 and returned to it repeatedly, with soloists including Roberto Michelucci, Pina Carmirelli and Federico Agostini.

Which soloist featured on the Academy of St Martin in the Fields' first gold record, Marriner's 1969 Argo recording?

Alan Loveday, New Zealand-born and closely associated with the Academy in its early years, was the soloist on Marriner's Argo LP, among the best-selling classical records of its day.

Max Richter said he discarded roughly what share of Vivaldi's music in his 2012 'Recomposed' Four Seasons?

75% was Richter's own estimate of how much Vivaldi he threw away, keeping about a quarter of the original notes, which he phased and looped in minimalist style.

Which violinist recorded Max Richter's Recomposed Four Seasons in 2012?

Daniel Hope was the soloist, with André de Ridder conducting the Konzerthaus Kammerorchester Berlin, on the Deutsche Grammophon album released in 2012.

Which Argentine composer's 'Four Seasons of Buenos Aires' is often paired with Vivaldi's in 'eight seasons' concerts?

Astor Piazzolla wrote his four 'Estaciones Porteñas' between 1965 and 1970; Leonid Desyatnikov's later arrangement for soloist and strings quotes Vivaldi to suit 'eight seasons' programmes.

Gil Shaham's mid-1990s Weather Channel music video was for the first movement of which concerto?

L'inverno (Winter) opened the promotion: the Weather Channel aired a video of its first movement, from Shaham's 1994 Deutsche Grammophon recording with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

The Piano Guys' 2014 arrangement mashed the Winter concerto with 'Let It Go' from which Disney film?

Frozen supplied 'Let It Go', which The Piano Guys wove into the Winter concerto's first movement; Wednesday Addams later played the same Vivaldi movement on cello in her Netflix series.

Which period ensemble's Four Seasons recording was used in the 2019 film Portrait of a Lady on Fire?

La Serenissima, directed by Adrian Chandler, made the recording heard in the film's final scene, a use that turned the track into a streaming hit.

What was Vivaldi's father's trade before he became a professional violinist?

Barber was the original trade of Giovanni Battista Vivaldi, who turned professional musician in 1685 and taught his son Antonio to play.

Which Holy Roman Emperor met Vivaldi at Trieste in 1728 and knighted him?

Charles VI received the dedication of La cetra, Op. 9, and after their meeting at Trieste gave Vivaldi a knighthood, a gold medal and an invitation to his court.

Vivaldi's breakthrough collection of twelve concertos, published in 1711 as Opus 3, is called what?

L'estro armonico ('The Harmonic Inspiration') holds concertos for one, two and four soloists; its fast–slow–fast ritornello model was copied across Europe within a decade.

Roughly how many operas did Vivaldi compose?

More than fifty operas are attributed to Vivaldi, who himself claimed 94; his first, Ottone in villa, was staged at Vicenza in 1713, and he later ran the Teatro Sant'Angelo as impresario.

Who sang all eleven parts, male and female, in Vivaldi's 1716 oratorio Juditha triumphans?

Girls of the Pietà orphanage took every role, including Holofernes; the oratorio marked the Republic's 1716 victory over the Turks, who abandoned their siege of Corfu that August.

Who conducted the first proper electrical recording of The Four Seasons in 1942, for the Cetra label?

Bernardino Molinari conducted the Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome for Cetra in 1942, using his own edition; a 1939 French radio performance by Alfredo Campoli may predate it.

Roughly how many recorded versions of The Four Seasons had been made by 2011?

About 1,000 recorded versions existed by 2011, against the two that the 1952 World's Encyclopedia of Recorded Music could list, making it one of the most recorded works ever.

In which key is the Summer concerto, RV 315?

G minor is the key of the Summer concerto, RV 315, whose languid opening under a blazing sun gives way to the set's most violent storm music in its finale.

Where in the score does Vivaldi note that 'the drunkards have fallen asleep'?

Autumn, second movement, carries the cue 'Ubriachi dormienti' (sleeping drunkards) over its muted Adagio molto; other score cues include 'Languor caused by the heat' in Summer.