Vivaldi: The Four Seasons

Vivaldi The Four Seasons
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Artist: Kati Debretzeni, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Genre: Classical
Label: Signum Classics

I once came across a self-help music book supplied with a free cardboard ruler. It was from the era of 78s, and the ruler was an aid to finding the place to put down the gramophone needle on specific records to hear the music examples. This new Four Seasons is simpler, offering a list of timings to identify the musical moments Vivaldi connected to specific lines in the sonnets with which he prefaced his music. It adds some non-instrumental birdsong effects to make sure you don't miss the point. This is a demonstrative Four Seasons, alert and eager in musical delivery, and yet in spite of what some people will regard as liberties –the "chattering teeth" of Winter, for example – it mostly doesn't create the effect of tweaking your ear for attention.url.ie/gb48

Michael Dervan

Michael Dervan

Michael Dervan is a music critic and Irish Times contributor