Antonio Vivaldi's story is a strange, fascinating one - famous during his lifetime, almost completely forgotten for 200 afterwards, re-discovered again in 1926. and truly a best-selling classical composer today. The fact that his concertos sounds at times re-hashed and recycled should not be surprising, considering Vivaldi had not a freedom and comfort of current composers who take years to come up with occasional music piece, his life and finances depended on perpetual work - as a music director of girl's orphanage he was obliged to compose two concertos per month - the most successful and famous of those was "Four seasons", lovely and colourful piece that paints picture of passing seasons trough wordless music landscape. No doubt, gentlemen visitors of those concerts were attracted by novelty of young girls playing all the instruments (and not all of those instruments were considered proper for ladies) so perhaps music was not the main attraction but from these titillating roots sprung what became later one of the most widely known works of classical music.
Composer had published "Four seasons" in 1725. along with some other works under the title "The Contest of Harmony and Invention" - there were 12 concertos in total and by this time "seasons" were already well known. It is still a magical work and joy to hear, from celebratory explosion of Spring, sudden Summer storm, harvest celebration of Autumn or chilly elegance of Winter - the idea is simple but the music just wonderful.
The recordings of "Four seasons" are countless now, market seemingly overcrowded with various interpretations of this beloved piece and depending on what is currently available, the choice is a bit mind-boggling because chances are that under "Vivaldi" section one might face up to 120 different recordings. When I first dived into classical music, I used all kinds of book guides and essays that recommended this or that, finally my choice fell on this recording because various sources agreed on its beauty - it was recorded in church in Stockholm by Swedish musicians and trough the years I have listened it with biggest pleasure, memorising the details and enjoying the elegance of the performance - although at this point I own five different "seasons" this was my first and still favourite, though I must recommend interesting guitar-only recording by Amsterdam Guitar Trio, that gives this well-known beauty a new shining dressing gown.
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