Classics Explained
An Introduction to... VIVALDI: The Four Seasons
Author and Narrator: Jeremy Siepmann
2 CDs, including the complete work
116-page booklet
Naxos 8.558028-29
ISBN: 1-84379-094-7
The Four Seasons is one of the most popular classical works ever written - four violin concertos, each capturing moods and illustrating stories related to a specific time of year. After 300 years, their melodies continue to thrill and seduce, their harmonies to haunt and excite, their tone-paintings to ravish the ear and inspire the imagination. But how do they work their particular magic? Why have they succeeded where others have failed? In this voyage of discovery, each movement is preceded by a lively exploration of its means with the help of many examples and useful analogies.
Jeremy Siepmann, in his engaging analysis of The Four Seasons, starts: 'One of the hardiest of all clichés where music is concerned is the claim that Vivaldi didn't write hundreds of concertos but one concerto hundreds of times. It ain't true'. You may know how The Four Seasons goes - the tunes and the exciting moments - but do you know how it is put together? Though the four concertos are each based on the standard three-movement concerto pattern (fast-slow-fast) how does Vivaldi inject all that pace and colour? Jeremy Siepmann explains.
