Media Contact: Emily Kirk Weddle, Boston Baroque
[email protected] 617-987-8600 For Immediate Release: Boston Baroque returns to Vivaldi’s beloved masterworks The Four Seasons and Gloria in D Featuring GRAMMY®-nominated concertmaster Christina Day Martinson BOSTON, MA—Boston Baroque returns to Vivaldi’s masterworks, The Four Seasons and Gloria in D, along with Monteverdi’s Beatus Vir this March, featuring Concertmaster Christina Day Martinson and conducted by Music Director Martin Pearlman. Two performances of this program will take place at NEC’s Jordan Hall—the first, on Friday, March 27 at 8pm, and the second on Sunday, March 29 at 3pm. Pre-concert speaker Laury Gutiérrez, founding director of La Donna Musicale, will give a talk before both performances at 7pm and 2pm. Inspired by the evocative landscape paintings of Italian artist Marco Ricci, Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) composed The Four Seasons as four separate concerti (Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter). Among the most beloved pieces of classical music today, the works were first published in Amsterdam in 1725, being circulated and performed widely in Vivaldi’s time. Many of his contemporaries, including Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), were fascinated with Vivaldi’s development of the solo concerto, often transcribing works like The Four Seasons to their preferred instrument. Boston Baroque’s interpretation looks closely at the historical performance practice of the day, and as such can be differentiated from other performances. The most notable distinction can be found in the slow movements, which feature ornamentation in the solo lines where the score has none written. From Bach’s transcriptions of Vivaldi’s work, it was common practice during the Baroque period for soloists to ornament this music depending on the player’s personal style and taste, and Boston Baroque’s performance reflects that tradition.