CTP Template: CD_DPS1 COLOURS Compact Disc Booklet: Double Page Spread CYAN MAGENTA Customer AVIE YELLOW Catalogue No. 2344 AV BLACK Job Title: Vivaldi The Four Seasons AV2344 Also available on AVIE Records AV2287 AV2201 VIVALDI VIVALDI A Tale of Two Seasons Gods, Emperors and Angels AV2178 AV2218 VIVALDI VIVALDI The French Connection The French Connection 2 CTP Template: CD_DPS1 COLOURS Compact Disc Booklet: Double Page Spread CYAN MAGENTA Customer AVIE YELLOW Catalogue No. 2344 AV BLACK Job Title: Vivaldi The Four Seasons Antonio Vivaldi 1678–1741 Concerto La Notte for bassoon, strings & continuo in B , RV 501 13 I. Largo – Andante molto ! 1.36 Le Quattro Stagioni The Four Seasons (Manchester version) 14 II. Presto: Fantasmi – Presto – Adagio 1.54 15 III. Adagio**: Il Sonno 2.35 Concerto La Primavera for violin, strings & continuo in E, RV 269 16 IV. Allegro: Sorge l’Aurora 3.00 1 I. Allegro 3.22 2 II. Largo 2.32 Concerto for violin in tromba marina, strings & continuo in D, RV 221* 3 III. Allegro 3.43 17 I. Allegro 2.42 18 II. Andante 1.53 Concerto L’Estate for violin, strings & continuo in G minor, RV 315 19 III. Allegro 2.50 4 I. Allegro non molto – Allegro 5.22 5 II. Adagio – Presto – Adagio – Presto – 2.34 Concerto per Maestro dè Morzin for bassoon, strings & continuo Adagio – Presto – Adagio – Presto – Adagio in G minor, RV 496 6 III. Presto 2.47 20 I. Allegro** 3.09 21 II. Largo 3.10 Concerto L’Autunno for violin, strings & continuo in F, RV 293 22 III. Allegro** 3.31 7 I. Allegro – Larghetto – Allegro assai/molto 5.36 8 II. Adagio molto 2.56 Concerto for violin in tromba marina, strings & continuo in G, RV 311* 9 III. Allegro – Lento - Allegro 3.35 23 I. Allegro** 2.12 24 II. Andante 1.37 Concerto L’Inverno for violin, strings & continuo in F minor, RV 297 25 III. Allegro 2.09 10 I. Allegro non molto 3.21 11 II. Largo 1.54 *World Premiere recordings 12 III. Allegro – Lento – Allegro 3.18 **editorial tempo markings 73.43 2 3 CTP Template: CD_DPS1 COLOURS Compact Disc Booklet: Double Page Spread CYAN MAGENTA Customer AVIE YELLOW Catalogue No. 2344 AV BLACK Job Title: Vivaldi The Four Seasons La Serenissima Peter Whelan bassoon Christiane Eidsten Dahl violin II Carina Cosgrave double bass Peter de Koningh, 2007, Holland, after anonymous Joan Karol Klotz, Mittenwald, c1760 Anon., c1870, Germany Venetian model Oakki Lau violin II Lynda Sayce theorbo Adrian Chandler Betts School, late C18, England David Van Edwards, Norwich, 2007, after Matteo Buechenberg, Rome (1614) violin in tromba marina Johann Andreas Doerffel, Klingenthal, 1755; Claudia Norz violin II Lynda Sayce guitars conversion to violin in tromba marina by David Georg Aman, C18 (in E) Ivo Magherini, Bremen, 2002, after Giovanni Tesler, Ancona (1620) Rattray, London, 2014 (in D) Edward Fitzgibbon, London, 1998, after Antonio Stradivari (1688) Elitsa Bogdanova viola Adrian Chandler violin Jan Pawlikovski, 2012, after Amati Robert Howarth harpsichord Rowland Ross, 1981, after Amati Malcolm Greenhalgh, 1989, London, after Grimaldi (c1680) James O’Toole viola [except 24] Adriano Candellieri violin I [1] Eric Mawbey, 2012, Aylsham, after Andrea Matteo Sellas, Venice, 1710 Guarnarius (1676) Camilla Calicchio violin I [1] & [3] Katie Stevens viola Santo Serafin, Venice, 1735 Bernd Hiller, 2010, after Tyrolean instrument Daniel Edgar violin I Oakki Lau viola [24] Edward Pamphilon, c1670 Eric Mawbey, 2012, Aylsham, after Andrea Guarnarius (1676) Kathryn Parry violin I Willibrord Crijnen, 1998, Marseille, after Stainer Gareth Deats cello (continuo) Michael Watson, 1993, Manchester, after Andrea Guy Button violin I Guarneri Jan Pawlikowski, 2012 Vladimir Waltham cello Camilla Scarlett violin II Nicola Gagliano, c1770–1780, Naples (on loan from Edward Dickenson, 1764, London Jumpstart Jr. Foundation) 4 5 CTP Template: CD_DPS1 COLOURS Compact Disc Booklet: Double Page Spread CYAN MAGENTA Customer AVIE YELLOW Catalogue No. 2344 AV BLACK Job Title: Vivaldi The Four Seasons Vivaldi: Concertos The subjects of Le Quattro Stagioni and its closely related Ages of Man appeared widely throughout the European arts of the post-Renaissance, inspired by the Arcadian poetry of The concertos that make up Le Quattro Stagioni (The Four Seasons) are probably the most Theocritus’s Idylls and Virgil’s Eclogues. An educated man of Vivaldi’s day would have been famous pieces of classical music ever written, enchanting global audiences since the Vivaldi schooled in the classical texts and their more modern counterparts in addition to the art of revival of the early 20th century. In the 18th century too these works were immensely rhetoric, which helped artists, orators, musicians and writers to disseminate their ideasii. popular, prompting Vivaldi himself to rework the opening ritornello of La Primavera for Vivaldi’s own writings show a knowledge of these ancient texts, the first sonnet containing iii inclusion in his operas Giustino and Dorilla in Tempe. This was the concerto that delighted strong echoes of Lucretius’s De rerum natura . above all others, even receiving the approval of King Louis XV of France who, on one Invention, or inventio, was one of the five key elements of rhetoric. Painters used this occasion in 1730, demanded an impromptu performance. concept to draw inspiration for their pictorial composition, and composers used a similar Le Quattro Stagioni first gained popularity when Vivaldi published the concertos as part process to help develop ‘figures’ in order to express their ideas or affects in much the same of his Op.8, Il Cimento dell’Armonia e dell’Invenzione (The Fusion of Harmony and Invention). way; it is probable that it is this technique to which Vivaldi refers in his title Il Cimento The collection was dedicated to the Bohemian Count Wenzel von Morzin, to whom dell’Armonia e dell’Invenzione. When viewed thus, it becomes apparent that Vivaldi’s skills (according to its dedicatory epistle) Vivaldi served as Maestro di Musica in Italia. One of the as an operatic composer were brought to bear on Le Quattro Stagioni: several themes most original characteristics of these works is the programmatic element found in both the contained within these works can be found among stock aria types of baroque opera, descriptive tags given to each section and the sonnets which accompany each concerto including Birds (Spring (i), Summer (i)), Storm (Spring (i), Summer (i – iii)), Sleep/Slumber (probably written by Vivaldi himself), to which Vivaldi provides cues in the score through a (Spring (ii), Summer (ii), Autumn (ii), Winter (ii)), Hunting (Autumn (iii)) and War (Winter (iii)). In series of letters. addition to these, we can find various affetti and concetti (affects and concepts), devices that Op.8 was published in Amsterdam in 1725 by the house of Le Cène. The composer’s the operatic composer used (as opposed to ‘feelings’) to communicate with his audience, autograph manuscript (presumably sent to Amsterdam for its engraving) has since been lost, including natura, calma, fede, amore, malinconia and sospetto (nature, calm, faith, love, but in Manchester there survives a set of parts in the hand of Vivaldi’s father, Giovanni Battista melancholy and suspicion). These ideas furthermore enabled Vivaldi to implement an Vivaldi. These were probably prepared at Antonio’s behest in around 1726, to be presented operatic tonal structure throughout the cycle of concertos. to Cardinal Pietro Ottobonii. Although this source postdates the Amsterdam publication, it is Presented with such an apparently complex design, one wonders whether Le Quattro possible that it transmits an earlier version of the concerti. Vivaldi’s aforementioned epistle Stagioni has an overall allegorical plan and, indeed, whether this can be pursued further iv states that these concertos were not freshly composed for the publication, but that their through the other concerti comprising Op.8 . Features contributing to this enigma include inclusion was due to the fact that they had ‘so long enjoyed the indulgence of Your Most the use of the dog – the personification of Melancholy – in conjunction with the key of C Illustrious Lordship’s kind generosity’, and in addition ‘I have added to them besides the sharp minor in La Primavera; the cuckoo, the first bird of L’Estate foretelling doom for the sonnets a very clear statement of all the things that unfold in them, so that I am sure they will unfortunate lover, his emotional state of mind shown through the means of the storm in this appear new to you.’ concerto’s finale (a common operatic device); the recycling of rhythmic material from La It is probable that the Manchester version represents the composer’s intentions more fully. Primavera in L’Autunno; and echoes of the heat of L’Estate in the coming of the Sirocco in In places the musical text is more logical, the articulations and phrasing more Vivaldian, and L’Inverno. the correlation between the sonnets and cues in the parts makes more sense. The bass part Of Vivaldi’s 500-odd concertos, around 250 are for solo violin, a fact which is not too contains only sparse figurations, unlike the fully treated Amsterdam edition, prepared for particularly surprising given Vivaldi’s own prodigious skills as a violinist. More extraordinary, the northern European market, which favoured a more elaborately figured basso continuo. perhaps, are the 39 concertos written for bassoon. The reason for this high productivity in 6 7 CTP Template: CD_DPS1 COLOURS Compact Disc Booklet: Double Page Spread CYAN MAGENTA Customer AVIE YELLOW Catalogue No. 2344 AV BLACK Job Title: Vivaldi The Four Seasons such a niche area has perplexed many writers, prompting some to surmise that he was More information can be found in the account books of the Pietà, which show payments supplying the Ospedale della Pietàv with works for their talented female musicians.