Quattro Note Di Autunno

The program begins with the most famous Vivaldi work of all, programmatic or not, the four violin concertos known as Le Quattro Stagioni or the Four Seasons. The rest of the music is much rarer.

Vivaldi was already a renowned opera composer in Venice and throughout Italy, but he gained exceptional notoriety throughout Europe when the concerti constituting his Quattro Stagioni were published in Amsterdam. These theme concertos, which embraced the imagination of Arcimboldo, gained top billing in private and public concerts. But their composition for solo violin has impressive virtuosity and expression: Stefan Plewniak becomes both unchained and sensual in them, not giving the Orchestre de l'Opera Royal any opportunity for respite in intensely sounding out these seasons that are so emblematic of Baroque Europe!

Of the 29 million recordings of Vivaldi's perennial masterpiece the Four Seasons, this astoundingly beautiful, astonishingly virtuosic recording by Gottfried von der Goltz and the Freiburger Barockorchester with Andrew Lawrence-King directing the Harp Consort on Deutsche Harmonia Mundi runs a little bit back from the head of the pack. Because, with 29 million recordings, it's hard to take the lead. So while von der Goltz plays with a piquant tone and a pungent technique, plus enough panache to put across even the most hoary old phrases; and the Barockorchester plays with superb poise and supreme skill, plus enough tone color to shade every subtlety of the Four Seasons; and Deutsche Harmonia Mundi's sound has enough polish and punch, plus enough presence, to make the hair on the back of your neck stand on end, there are still a good two-dozen recordings as fine as this one…

You have reached the peak of excellence for Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons' with this performance. The previous reviewer is right in more ways than one: Vivaldi and I Musici can certainly bring one's soul closer to God as they are both divine, but so are the Stradivarius strings played to perfection by I Musici. This rendition of Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" directed by Vittorio Negri and performed by Pina Carmirelli is truly the most divine in its fluid and passionate performance.