Vivaldi - “Autumn” and “Winter” from The Four Seasons
About the Composer
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
Pronounced “Vih-VALL-dee”
Was born into a musical family in Venice, and became a Catholic priest.
Always suffered ill health, and was therefore given a dispensation from saying Mass, leaving him free to work on musical pursuits for the Church.
Vivaldi played the violin and was nicknamed “il Prete Rosso” or “The Red Priest” because of the color of his hair. He was a prolific composer during the Baroque period, and was the Master of Violin at the Devout Hospital of Mercy, an orphanage in Venice. The boys at the orphanage were taught a trade, but the girls received a musical education and under Vivaldi’s leadership soon became famous.
You can read more about Vivaldi’s interesting life on Wikipedia.
About the Piece
The Four Seasons is actually a group of four separate violin concertos written by Vivaldi around 1716-1717, and are his most famous works. They were revolutionary at the time because of the way Vivaldi used music to depict the sounds of nature - flowing water, birds, storms, and more. He also published the pieces with a set of accompanying poems, which was again unusual for the time period. Click here to read The Four Seasons Sonnets.
The RSO will be performing just two of the Seasons, “Autumn” and “Winter.” Read more about all Four Seasons on Wikipedia here.
