Vivaldi: Le Quattro Stagioni

Baroque violinist Rachel Podger and Brecon Baroque achieved something rare in their 2018 recording of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. The combination of Podger’s stylish and urgent solo performances coupled with her ensemble’s rhythmic vitality and energy brought a freshness to this familiar music. Suddenly, each of the 18th-century Italian composer’s concertos sounded newly minted, more colourful and bursting with detail. “They’re wonderful pieces,” Podger tells Apple Music Classical, “really exhilarating to play and to listen to. Vivaldi’s really, really good at showing all the different characteristics of each season in an interesting way.” From the promise of spring through to the icy bite of the winter wind, Vivaldi uses his instruments in exciting and innovative ways. A viola plays the part of a barking dog; plucked strings bring spatters of rain; virtuosic, scurrying passages paint images of a summer storm breaking the suffocating heat. Podger and Brecon Baroque present three more Vivaldi violin concertos to show even more sides to the ever-inventive composer including one dedicated to the sleeping baby Jesus, and another to one of Vivaldi’s secret lovers… “In the final movement we’re kind of in a dreamy state,” says Podger, “and it’s a little bit like that feeling when you have a secret love and you don’t want to tell.” Read on as Rachel Podger takes us through her recording of The Four Seasons and other concertos by Vivaldi. The Four Seasons “Spring” “At the start of ‘Spring’ we hear the bright key of E major and this very famous, lovely tune. And then we hear some birds singing with a murmuring brook running alongside. The music is very good at portraying the green around you in the freshness in spring. The second movement is the sleeping shepherd with the violins murmuring—they’re the murmuring plants, whispering to each other. The viola is the faithful dog barking in the distance. The last movement is a pastoral dance; you can imagine all the villagers coming out and celebrating spring with bagpipes.” “Summer” “Vivaldi’s very clever at giving us a sense of this sweltering feeling that you have when it’s just too hot. You’re exhausted by the heat. And you hear that in the opening ritornello which is the bit that comes back throughout the movement and sounds like a sigh. Next, you can hear birds: cuckoo, turtle dove and goldfinch. “Then the north wind and a storm approaches with lots of rapid figurations along with the tears of the village boy who’s worried about the impending storm. In the second movement I’m trying to sleep, but I can’t because there are a whole load of mosquitoes and flies hovering around my head. That’s the violins. And then there’s thunder, which appears in the distance and moves closer. The storm becomes reality in the fast and furious last movement.” “Autumn” “‘Autumn’ is in F major which evokes a pastoral feeling. This key is often used by composers to depict something bucolic. The villagers are celebrating in dance and song, getting drunk and falling all over the place. Vivaldi really gets the soloist to play with that. We had a lot of fun with it, trying out different timings and excelling at not being together as an ensemble, which was hilarious. By the end the villagers are all asleep—they’ve all had too much. “The second movement depicts the sleeping drunkards while the harpsichord decorates the different chords and amuses them in their dreams. In the third movement, we hunt the deer—you can imagine the riding and chasing. You can even hear the gunshots which we did with a very loud pizzicato. Sadly the deer dies at the end, but the returning ritornello makes it good again.” “Winter” “‘Winter’ is written in a very dark key. F minor is not used lightly in the 18th century, but it’s the perfect key for showing what winter is like. We start off with the depiction of frozen ice, which works its way from the bottom of the ensemble right through to the top. You can imagine that you’re playing, but you’re so cold you can hardly move. You want to save your energy to keep warm. There’s then some foot stamping and teeth chattering—it’s really fun to play. “In the second movement, we’re sitting beside the fire and we’re warming up with the most beautiful tune while it rains outside. Preferably we’ve got a whisky on hand! In the third movement we’re skating on the ice and probably falling over—Vivaldi even writes that into the score. There’s an icy wind and we’re walking and picking ourselves up, getting more confident. Vivaldi shows that with the timing and different dynamics.” Violin Concerto in E Major “Il riposo per il S.S. Natale” “This concerto is about sleep and resting. It’s written in E major and it has muted strings throughout. There’s no harpsichord. It’s a kind of Christmas concerto and there’s a kind of lovely gentle feeling to it—the first movement is very beautiful with muted strings. The second movement is literally just a sequence of chords over which I got my Italian lutenist to play a decoration. The third movement goes back to the dreamy state. To me, it feels like honey and all those good things you have at Christmas.” Violin Concerto in E Major “L’amoroso” “There’s a lot of love in this concerto, as the title suggests. The first movement is really sweet and gentle and soft. And there’s a compound rhythm, which basically means it’s a figuration of groups of three, which gives it this lovely lilting sense. The solo passages often feel quite unearthly because sometimes there’s no bass accompaniment. “The second movement is cantabile, which means singing. It’s in E minor and it’s really beautiful, soulful and sad—there’s lots of yearning and lots of opportunity to decorate the line. We end with a more joyful movement, but we’re still in a dreamy state. It’s a little bit like that feeling when you have a secret love and you don’t want to tell.” Violin Concerto in D Major “Il grosso mogul” “This concerto is very extrovert—it might well have been written for a great mogul, some kind of personality or grand person from the East. It’s Vivaldi at his most energetic, with lots of virtuoso solo passage writing. “The second movement is particularly mesmerising. It conjures up a completely different world. It’s basically a written-out improvisation, which sounds a little bit like a kind of heartfelt tale told by a Middle Eastern fortune teller. It’s got lots and lots of chromatic passages that wind their way over the violin. It’s amazing to play and doesn’t really sound like Vivaldi! “The last movement is a romping dance. There’s a big display of virtuosic figuration with lots of double stops [two notes played at the same time], imitating horns or trumpets. It’s quite scary to play in a concert, but thrilling and exhilarating.”