the music
The Four Seasons: what each concerto paints
A short guide to the four concertos, their sonnets and the pictures Vivaldi hid in the strings.
Reserve your seats for the concert ↗Four seasons, four pictures
| Concerto | What it pictures |
|---|---|
| Spring | Singing birds, flowing streams and a thunderstorm |
| Summer | Heat, buzzing flies and a thunderstorm |
| Autumn | A harvest celebration and a hunt |
| Winter | Frozen landscapes, shivering, walking on ice and a warm fire |
One set, twelve concertos
The Four Seasons are the first four of twelve violin concertos in Vivaldi's Op. 8, a collection titled Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione. It was published in Amsterdam in 1725.
Poems with the music
Unusually for the period, Vivaldi published the concertos with sonnets. The authorship of the poems is debated, with Vivaldi himself a possible author, and each sonnet is split into three parts to match the three movements.
Spring
The sonnet brings singing birds of different kinds and flowing creeks, then a thunderstorm. The music is written for a solo violin with string orchestra and continuo.
Summer
The sonnet gives the heat of the season and buzzing flies, then a thunderstorm. Thunder and lightning are among the images the concert listing highlights.
Autumn
A harvest festival, then hunting scenes seen from the hunter's side and from that of the prey.
Winter
Shivering in frozen landscapes, stepping carefully over ice, then the contrast of a warm fire. Vivaldi composed the set around 1718 to 1723, when he was chapel master in Mantua.