Violin Concerto in E Major

“Spring has arrived, and the birds celebrate with joyful songs.” So begins the preface to the first concerto of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. The sonnet was probably written by the composer himself, the narrative a guide not only for listeners but the players, too, who must imitate and conjure everything from birdsong to a barking dog. “Spring” follows the same pattern as all of the Four Seasons concertos. Three movements, broadly fast-slow-fast, supply a sequence of atmospheric vignettes. The ebullient dance of the opening “Allegro” is soon interrupted by the call of birds. Chirruping staccato notes, cooing trills and scales mingle and rival in vivid dialogue. But their song is interrupted when the “roar” of a thunderstorm and jagged lightning flashes in the solo violin. The clouds soon pass, however, and a joyful dance resumes. A gentler breeze murmurs and stirs the meadow grasses in the “Largo”. A goatherd sleeps, soothed by the solo violin’s lullaby, while his dog keeps watch—you can hear a gruff bark in the viola. A drone established in the lower strings at the start of the “Allegro Pastorale” imitates the bagpipes that accompany the “nymphs and shepherds” whose graceful dances (so different to the heavy-footed peasants heard in the “Autumn” concerto) weave and bend in solo and ensemble violins. About Vivaldi's The Four Seasons From a sudden spring thunderstorm to lazy summer heat, harvest songs and dances (and the drinking that fuels them) to the tooth-chattering chill of the winter wind—Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons is a vivid portrait of a year in country life, painted in sound. Published in 1725, this group of four violin concertos are the opening works of a larger collection, The Contest Between Harmony and Invention, but they’ve always stood apart: descriptive music in an age of abstraction, film music long before film itself. Dismissed in their day as gimmicks or wild innovation, it took more than 200 years for these sonic snapshots to find a regular place in the repertoire.