Classical Considerations: A Fresh Take on Four Seasons
Since its inception The Classical Station has rarely, if ever, gone a week without playing a selection from Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. This should come as no surprise since, with the exception of a brief period in the late 1700s, the four violin concerti have been great favorites of the music-going public and their deeply programmatic nature appeals to audiences even today. These pieces are so popular, in fact, that many composers across a range of instruments have seen fit to modify them to showcase their instrument of choice, opening up Vivaldi’s masterpieces to such diverse voices as the saxophone, harp, accordion and koto. As we make the slow, soggy, transition from winter into spring we at The Classical Station went into the vaults and came out with some of our favorite reinterpretations of these great classical pieces. Below you’ll find our selections for the most interesting or moving alternatives to the originally scored violin along with the sonnets, penned by Vivaldi himself, which we used as a guidepost for determining whether the reinterpretation was successful in capturing the great master’s original intent.
Spring: Michel Corrette’s Laudate Dominum de Coelis
Springtime is upon us.
The birds celebrate her return with festive song,
and murmuring streams are
softly caressed by the breezes.
Thunderstorms, those heralds of Spring, roar,
casting their dark mantle over heaven,
Then they die away to silence,
and the birds take up their charming songs once more.
On the flower-strewn meadow, with leafy branches
rustling overhead, the goat-herd sleeps,
his faithful dog beside him.
Led by the festive sound of rustic bagpipes,
nymphs and shepherds lightly dance
beneath spring’s beautiful canopy.
Summer: The Venice Harp Quartet
Under a hard season, fired up by the sun
Languishes man, languishes the flock and burns the pine
We hear the cuckoo’s voice;
then sweet songs of the turtledove and finch are heard.
Soft breezes stir the air, but threatening
the North Wind sweeps them suddenly aside.
The shepherd trembles,
fearing violent storms and his fate.
The fear of lightning and fierce thunder
Robs his tired limbs of rest
As gnats and flies buzz furiously around.
Alas, his fears were justified
The Heavens thunder and roar and with hail
Cut the head off the wheat and damages the grain.
Autumn: Ferhan & Ferzan Önder, Duet for Piano
Celebrates the peasant, with songs and dances,
The pleasure of a bountiful harvest.
And fired up by Bacchus’ liquor,
many end their revelry in sleep.
Everyone is made to forget their cares and to sing and dance
By the air which is tempered with pleasure
And (by) the season that invites so many, many
Out of their sweetest slumber to fine enjoyment
The hunters emerge at the new dawn,
And with horns and dogs and guns depart upon their hunting
The beast flees and they follow its trail;
Terrified and tired of the great noise
Of guns and dogs, the beast, wounded, threatens
Languidly to flee, but harried, dies.
Winter: Jean-Pierre Rampal, Concerto for Flute
To tremble from cold in the icy snow,
In the harsh breath of a horrid wind;
To run, stamping one’s feet every moment,
Our teeth chattering in the extreme cold
Before the fire to pass peaceful,
Contented days while the rain outside pours down.
We tread the icy path slowly and cautiously,
for fear of tripping and falling.
Then turn abruptly, slip, crash on the ground and,
rising, hasten on across the ice lest it cracks up.
We feel the chill north winds course through the home
despite the locked and bolted doors…
this is winter, which nonetheless
brings its own delights.