Antonio Vivaldi composed The Four Seasons ('Le quattro stagioni' in its original Italian) in 1723. It is a set of 4 violin concertos that propose an early form of descriptive music: for example, Winter makes prominent use of pizzicato notes in high registers, whereas Summer evokes a storm in its final movement. The work was first presented as part of Op. 8, being later catalogued as RV 269, 315, 293 & 297. The Four Seasons remain very popular to this day, some of its concertos spawning a great number of derivative works, whereas thousands of recordings of the original pieces have been made. It is still debated if Vivaldi wrote this concerto to accompany four sonnets that may have been written by himself.

Performer: John Harrison

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