Yeah, well, I personally never tire of Vivaldi. The quip about Vivaldi writing 500 times the same work is a fine quip, but it’s a silly comment. Quip for quip, would you accuse Beethoven of lacking imagination because he found no better than to write 33 variations on a theme that he wasn’t even able to invent himself, rather than composing 34 original pieces? My point here is that Vivaldi’s concertos are best viewed as hundreds of variations on a theme. Always similar, and always different, and fantastically imaginative in their ability to endlessly vary the same basic ideas and material.
I’ve reviewed a lot of Vivaldi and have only yet scratched the surface. Time time time, and I really need to live 200 years (that’s why I don’t do sports, it lethally wears the body). I need to transfer all those from Amazon over here (and I have too a number of reviews of The Four Seasons that I haven’t even posted on Amazon). Time time time.
When I have done so, one chapter will be for the transcriptions of the Four Seasons – I love the Seasons (I have an essay to write about the intrepretations of the Seasons) and I love transcriptions. I have a lot of transcriptions of The Four Seasons – not as many as those of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, but still: for two pianos, recorder quintet, flute octet, brass quintet, guitar trio and quartet, Japanese zithers, synthesizer, Nicolas Chédeville’s 18th-century arrangements for bagpipe and hurdy-gurdy, Red Priest’s wild version for recorder, violin, cello and harpsichord, and of course all those that substitute solo recorder or flute to the solo violin (for links to all, see, for the time being, my review of Red Priest’s recording on Amazon.com).
And among those, the “recomposition” by Max Richter, on DG 476 5040 (2012), making The Seasons sound like music of Michael Nyman.
April 2025: good news (I hope): I’ve started posting new reviews of the very oldest recordings of The Four Seasons, and that is the beginning of what I hope will be a very thorough chronological and critical survey of those wonderful concertos.
So here is how it starts:
Bernardino Molinari and the Rome Augusteo Orchestra (soon rechristiened “Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia”), published by Cetra in 1942, reissued to CD in 1991 on Ermitage ERM 116 S (1991)
Louis Kaufman and the Concert Hall Society String Orchestra under Henry Swoboda, recorded by Concert Hall in December 1947, reissued to CD on Naxos 8.110297-98 (2005)
Alfredo Campoli with the Boyd Neel String Orchestra under Boyd Neel, a broadcast performance published on Pearl GEMM CD 9151 in 1995 and said to be from circa 1939 and Paris (and therefore now often presented as the oldest extant recording of The Seasons), but I have strong reasons to doubt that dating and location, in favor of England in late 1949 or early 1951, see my review to know why – and what the performance is worth.
Reinhold Barchet, The Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Karl Münchinger 1951 on IMP Classics 782122 (2011) and reissues, the first recording of the LP era (Molinari and Kaufman had been reissued to the new medium in 1949), and a terrible version, with its impossibly trudging Allegros in the outer movements of almost each concerto. Münchinger’s early stereo remake (see below) didn’t improve, other than the sonics. It took conductor three attempts to get The Seasons just about right.
Georges Alès, Collegium Musicum de Paris, Marie-Louise Girod, organ and Jacques Wiederker, cello, cond. Roland Douatte circa 1954. LP Concerteum CCX 278 and download. An obscure recording on a long-gone label by nth-tier musical forces (and many unsolved enigmas, like the dubious existence of a complete opus 8 by the same performers, as well as of an edition with spoken narration) – and possibly the best version of the mono era, because, unlike all the competitors who seemed to follow the style of Münchinger, its Allegros were lively, dance-like and merry. Still a long way to go to bring out the theatre in Vivaldi’s music, but a step in the right direction.
Werner Krotzinger, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Karl Münchinger 5/58. Decca or London “Weekend Classics” 417 873-2 (1988) and reissues: the same mis-headed conception as in 1951, but with early stereo. For the best Münchinger version, see 1972.
Konstanty Kulka, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester (Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra), Karl Münchinger 20-21/7/72 . London “Jubilee” 417 712-2 (1987) and reissues. Münchinger’s best version, with an entirely overhauled conception (what took him so long?), Allegros that sound merry and dance-like rather than trudging and elephantine, and, with Konstanty Kulka, the best fiddler of the three. That said, despite the presence of Igor Kipnis at the continuo harpsichord, it isn’t a very imaginative version either. Marriner three years before had done much better – and Harnoncourt five years later would revolutionize the conception of The Four Seasons, finally playing the theatre of Vivaldi, e.g. playing the Seasons as the descriptive and programmatic music that it is, and not only its music, as if it were a piece of “pure” music.
Alice Harnoncourt, Concentus Musicus Wien, Nikolaus Harnoncourt 10/76. Teldec Das Alte Werk” 8.42985 ZK (1984) and reissues
**********************************************
The Mandolin et lute concertos and trios:
Mandolin Concertos (RV 532, 425, 558), Violin Concertos (RV 583 a due cori “con Violino Discordato”, RV 522 “con violino principale con altro per eco in lontano”, RV 581 “Per la Santissima Assuzione di Maria Vergine”). Bonifacio Bianchi, Alessandro Pitrelli, Piero Toso, Giuliano Carmignola (in RV 522), I Solisti Veneti, Claudio Scimone 1969, 1975, 1978/79. First CD edition Erato “Bonsaï” ECD 55013 (1987) and subsequent reissues
Intégrale des oeuvres avec luth (complete works with lute): Concertos RV 558, RV 540, RV 93, Trios RV 82 and 85. Michel Amoric (lute), Jean Estournet (violin and direction), Jean-Philippe Vasseur (viola d’amore), Ensemble instrumental (rec. 1981). Adès 14.024-2 (1986)
Mandolin Concertos (RV 93, 425, 532, 558). Ugo Orlandi, Dorina Frati, I Solisti Veneti, Claudio Scimone 1983. First CD edition Erato ECD 88042 (1984) and subsequent reissues
Music for Lute and Mandolin (Concertos RV 532 for two mandolins, RV 425 for mandolin, RV 93 for lute, RV 540 for viola d’amore & lute, Trios RV 85 & 82 for lute, violin & cello). Paul O’Dette, Robin Jeffrey (second mandolin), Paul Goodman (violin & viola d’amore), The Parley of Instruments, Paul Goodman and Peter Holman (12/84). Hyperion CDA66160 (LP 1985, CD 1986) and subsequent reissues
Concerti per Liuto e Mandolino / Concertos for Lute and Mandolin (Concertos RV 558 for multiple instruments, RV 540 for viola d’amore & lute, RV 425 for mandolin, RV 93 for lute two violins & b.c., RV 532 for 2 mandolins, Trio RV 85 & RV 82 for violin lute and b.c.). Duilio Galfetti & Wolfgang Paul (mandolin), Luca Pianca (archlute), Enrico Onofri (viola d’amore), Il Giardino Armonico, Giovanni Antonini December 1990, April/May 1992. Teldec 4509-91182-2 (1993) and subsequent reissues