Summer: The Allegro first movement, “Languor caused by the heat – the Cuckoo – the Turtledove – the Goldfinch – Gentle Zephyrs – Various winds – the North-Wind – Young Countryman’s Lament,” is absolutely filled with events, somewhat obscuring the Rondo form, but the description is superb. The Allegro third movement is simply inscribed “Country Dance.” The violas become the bass instruments, and delightfully, represent the barking dog with a repeated figure. The second movement, a Largo, describes “A sleeping goatherd – Rustling of foliage – The dog barks – The goat-herder and his faithful dog.” Under the beautiful violin solo, the cellos and harpsichord are silent. Spring: Marked Allegro, the first movement is inscribed, “Spring’s awakening – Song of the birds – The Springs gush out – Thunder – The song of the birds.” In the Baroque Rondo form, this movement is in five sections, fluidly descriptive. The original score has the appropriate phrases printed in. The sonnets themselves are rather pedestrian, at least in translation, but Vivaldi enshrined them in the richest surroundings. The inspiration for The Four Seasons came from a set of four anonymous sonnets, from which Vivaldi took descriptive phrases to direct the development of musical ideas. Vivaldi combined the structure of the solo concerto with the musical depiction of events found in nature, with telling results. The Four Seasons were boldly experimental when they were published in 1725. Since then, enthusiasm has hardly wavered. At a time when music was comparatively ephemeral, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons outlived musical fashion to such an extent that Rousseau, some thirty-five years after Vivaldi’s death, produced a flute transcription for publication. Vivaldi, producing in his career something over four hundred concertos, achieved in this set of four linked violin concertos a work of transcendent quality that completely overshadowed not only his own other efforts, but most of the concertos of his contemporaries. Yet The Four Seasons, after some sixty years of regular performance, appears to be as well-loved as ever. Generally, when a work is as resoundingly popular as The Four Seasons, there is a very great danger that it will become hackneyed sooner or later. Joy indeed.Le quattro stagioni (The Four Seasons) (1723) After that moment of reconciliation, the subsequent battle of winds can do no harm: ‘This is winter, but of a kind to bring joy’, reads the sonnet. When the winds come, Sirocco ironically has the rhythm and motivic substance of the opening of Summer but none of his former malevolence now in Eb major, his gentle warmth recalls the comfort evoked in the slow movement. 8 (except, perhaps, the finale of Summer) is ritornello form implemented so freely that its functions are transcended. The harmony is static, as if time stands still, and a formal framework is scarcely required. Travelling in wide, mesmeric sweeps, the slow progress to the dominant of the dominant (bar 73/154) is achieved with the same hanging inevitability as that of the skater’s impending accident. And so we should not be deceived by his depictions, but rather marvel at the timelessness of the atmosphere created ‘in notes with many a winding bout of linked sweetness long drawn out’. Because it is amusing, it also enabled Vivaldi to give freedom to his technique in an easily tolerated, self-effacing way: he too took a risk. But skating was brilliantly chosen, for it symbolizes people’s freedom when they live in harmony with nature, and when they are not afraid to take a risk.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |