Vivaldi - The Complete Four Seasons (with sonnet)

INTRODUCTION

Vivaldi wrote hundreds of concertos for different instruments - violins, bassoons, flutes, oboes, organs, and others. Out of these, he wrote a sonnet for only one set of them - The Four Seasons, of Opus 8: The Contest between Harmony and Invention.

What prompted him to write the sonnet? What was so special about the Four Seasons?

As we would quote from Vivaldi, ‘there are no words, it’s only music there.’ And if there are words in The Four Seasons, there must be good reason.

We speculated on two possibilities: first, the Four Seasons touched on subjects or topics substantially different from his other work. Or, secondly, the sonnet was meant as a teaching tool for music appreciation. We think that the second reason is more probable, but we could be wrong.

Nonetheless, based on the sonnet, we have prepared this music video for you. We searched thousands of paintings to find these artworks. They spanned from the 16th to the 20th century, from the US to Europe and Russia, from myths and legends to pastoral to landscape, from oil on canvass to print and water-colour, from Baroque to Romanticism to Luminism. The painting are diverse, the techniques are varied, but they have a common thread: a part of them fitted the spirit of the sonnet and music. And so this video is formed - a collection of artwork presenting the story of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, step by step.

Click on the start button when you are comfortably seated. Get ready to spend forty minutes for a story. Listen to the birds chirping and the storm roaring. Have a cup of coffee or tea with you. Set the video resolution to 720 pixels. Then enjoy :)

Spring: 0:03 - 10:33
Summer: 10:45 - 20:05
Autumn: 20:15 - 31:10
Winter: 31:15 - 40:15

CREDIT
Video: Stories of Music
Music:
Composer: Antonio Vivaldi (composed 1723, published 1725)
Violin: John Harrison
Conductor: Robert Turizziani
Orchestra: Wichita State University Chamber Players

Recording copyright: John Harrison (JohnHarrisonViolin.com); Live, unedited performance at the Wiedermann Recital Hall, Wichita State University, 6 February 2000.

Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0.