The Four Seasons

Hi Friends,

Hope you’re doing well. In case you missed it, last week we debuted our Monday music series with Current Country Music. The idea is that each week, on Monday, I’ll post about some music I enjoy, share some history and why I love it, and include a playlist for you to enjoy. Today’s selection is Le Quattro Stagioni, or The Four Seasons.

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi is one of the greatest composers of all time. He lived between 1678 and 1741 and was the heart of the Baroque era in Italy.  While he was an ordained priest, his focus and passion in life was music. Like me, he had some acute asthma but didn’t let that get in the way of living a full life. He was a prolific composer and wrote around 500 concerti! Like me, Vivaldi was also a teacher. He taught violin and conducted the orchestra at Ospedale della Pietà, an orphanage for girls in Venice.

It’s not entirely clear when Vivaldi started writing Le Quattro Stagioni, his most famous work and one of the most famous pieces of music ever, but they were finished in 1725. You know it is one of the most famous pieces if we were writing a whole article solely about it. It is important to note that The Four Seasons is a collection of four concertos: La Primavera (Spring), L’estate (Summer), L’autunno (Autumn), and L’inverno (Winter). As you read this blog and go about your day, listen to the playlist I made here, featuring the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and one of the greatest violinists of all time, Itzhak Perlman:

The Four Seasons - playlist by Musicalprodigy1 | Spotify

For those not too familiar with Baroque era music, the concerto form of that era had a solo instrument, in this case violin, accompanied by a Baroque string orchestra and basso continuo, a system of musical accompaniment built on a written bass line with improvised chords, usually played by violins, violas, cellos, double bass and harpsichord. Each concerto has three movements, typically fast, slow, fast, and were often used in tandem with written word, earning the name program music, evoking different emotional themes. In this blog, we’ll talk a bit about each of the four concertos that make up this amazing work of art.

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Spring (La Primavera) - E Major

This concerto paints the arrival of spring through music, making it both artistically rich and emotionally engaging for listeners. I like it because it's not abstract: you can "hear" birds, streams and storms with bright, lively melodies and clear contrasts. The solo violin parts showcase technical skill, and the piece moves from joy to serenity to drama, offering a complete emotional arc. This piece has three distinct movements, each with a distinct mood:

1. Allegro (Fast, lively)

The joyful dawn; birdsong, flowing brooks, a brief thunderstorm and one of the most recognizable melodies of all time.

2. Largo e pianissimo sempre (Slow, broad, in C# minor)

The shepherd's song: serene scenes.

3. Allegro pastorale (Fast, lively, evoking rural scenes)

Storm and resolution; a storm passes leaving a physical meadow.

Summer (L'estate) - G minor

I really like this one because I can really "see" and "feel" the tension, heat and storm. It really feels like a soundtrack centuries before soundtracks even existed. This work moves from exhaustion to unease to full-blown chaos, making it one of the most dramatic pieces in Baroque music. The final movement especially is a showcase of speed, precision and intensity. It's always thrilling to hear a soloist push their instrument to its absolute limits. Also, you fans of music with narrative or imagery will love this piece. Vivaldi wasn't just writing notes; he was telling a story.

1. Allegro non molto (Fast, but not very fast)

A vivid portrayal of summer's oppressive heat, the beauty of birdlife and the shift toward a storm.

2. Adagio e piano (Slowly and softly)

The transition from stillness to violent weather, mixing natural beauty with the discomfort of summer insects and the threat of storms.

3. Presto (Very fast)

The climax; the destructive force of the summer storm, fulfilling the shepherd's fears and ending the movement on a dramatic note.

Autumn (L'autunno) - F Major

This is the third concerto of the four and it musically portrays harvest celebrations and an autumn hunt through its three movements: Allegro, Adagio molto (very slow) and Allegro. It captures the essence of fall; golden leaves, crisp air, harvest joy and the quiet of the night, making it the perfect soundtrack for the season we are in right now. It moves from exuberance to calm to tension, offering a rich emotional journey in about 10 minutes. 

1. Allegro

This movement is the most famous and widely performed. It portrays a country dance at a harvest festival, full of crisp, carefree rhythms and virtuosic violin passages.

2. Adagio Molto (in D minor)

This slower movement provides contrast, with soft strings that represent the cooler, reflective air of autumn.

3. Allegro

The final movement depicts a Baroque hunt, complete with musical imagery of horses, dogs, and leaves.

Winter (L'inverno) - F minor

This is personally my favorite one as it captures winter extremes; cold, danger, warmth and relief with vivid musical imagery. I especially love the outer movements with high virtuosity from the solo violin. Their speed and intensity make this piece super exciting even for you all who are new to classical music. F minor is the perfect key for this piece as it contributes to the concerto's dark atmosphere. In the Baroque era, minor keys often carried associations of severity and tension. F minor intensifies that sense of tension; its tonal color is less bright than G minor (Summer) or E major (Spring), and its lower resonance on the violin naturally produces a colder sound.

1. Allegro non molto

Icy winds and stamping feet in the snow using rapid violin passages and tutti (all voices/instruments) sections to convey the harshness of winter.

2. Largo (in Eb Major)

Evokes warmth and coziness by the fire, contrasting the cold outside.

3. Allegro

This is the best movement in the entire work, in my humble opinion. It returns to the outdoors after a storm, illustrating slipping and falling on icy roads with energetic, fast violin lines representing chattering teeth and movement on ice.

Throughout music history, many composers in several genres have explored the theme of the seasons in their music, often inspired by Vivaldi’s work. For the classical music fans who’ve made it this far in the blog, a few to consider are Haydn’s Symphonies 6, 7, and 8 namely Le Matin, Le Midi, and Le Soir (1761); Haydn’s The Seasons (1801), Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons (1876), Glazunov’s The Seasons (1899), Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires (1970), and Chin’s Formosa Seasons (2007), to name a few of the great ones.  I think I’ll leave this here for today. Hope you enjoyed this trip back in time to Venice with the music of Vivaldi. Look forward to more musical offerings next Monday!

That’s all for today! See y’all next time! Sarang out.