Classical Music | Cello Music

Recorded on 10/01/2010, uploaded on 10/01/2010

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

world première

The four concertos known as The Four Seasons are Antonio Vivaldi’s best-known works. Composed in 1723 and published two years later in Amsterdam, they are actually part of Vivaldi’s larger opus 8, entitled Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'invenzione (The Contest Between Harmony and Invention), a set of twelve concerti for solo violin, string orchestra and continuo. A unique aspect of The Four Seasons is the sonnets Vivaldi supplied as an aid to the scenes depicted in the works. The author of the sonnets is unknown and it is possible that Vivaldi himself may have written them. Each divides neatly into three sections, correspondingly exactly to the three movements of each concerto.

The sounds of harvest are depicted in the third concerto, “Autumn,” of The Four Seasons. In the opening movement, in F major and marked Allegro, the peasants celebrate the bounties of the season with song and dance. Towards the end, the key shifts to the tonic minor and the tempo slows to a Larghetto when too many of the peasants have over-indulged themselves with the wine of Bacchus. In the middle movement, the peasants, exhausted from the festivities, fall asleep. In D minor, chromatic harmonies create a dreamy and wandering feeling while the entire movement passes by at a soft, gentle dynamic. The hunt is the subject of the finale and it opens with the imitation of hunting horns. Later on even the baying of hounds can be heard. The soloist in this movement finds himself, unwittingly, as the prey ruthlessly pursued by the orchestra. Overcome, the prey is caught and the opening strain of hunting horns closes the piece.     Joseph DuBose