The Four Seasons (Vivaldi) | vivaldi spring
SetoffourviolinconcertosbyAntonioVivaldiTheFourSeasons(Italian:Lequattrostagioni)isagroupoffourviolinconcertosbyItaliancomposerAntonioVivaldi,eachofwhichgivesmusicalexpressiontoaseasonoftheyear.Thesewerecomposedaround1718−1720,whenVivaldiwasthecourtchapelmasterinMantua.Theywerepublishedin1725inAmsterdam,togetherwitheightadditionalconcerti,asIlcimentodellarmoniaedellinventione(TheContestBetweenHarmonyandInvention).TheFourSeasonsisthebestknownofVivaldisworks.Thoughthreeoftheconcertiarewhollyor...
Set of four violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi
The Four Seasons (Italian: Le quattro stagioni) is a group of four violin concertos by Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi, each of which gives musical expression to a season of the year. These were composed around 1718−1720, when Vivaldi was the court chapel master in Mantua. They were published in 1725 in Amsterdam, together with eight additional concerti, as Il cimento dellarmonia e dellinventione (The Contest Between Harmony and Invention).
The Four Seasons is the best known of Vivaldis works. Though three of the concerti are wholly original, the first, "Spring", borrows patterns from a sinfonia in the first act of Vivaldis contemporaneous opera Il Giustino. The inspiration for the concertos is not the countryside around Mantua, as initially supposed, where Vivaldi was living at the time, since according to Karl Heller[1] they could have been written as early as 1716–1717, while Vivaldi was engaged with the court of M...