VIVALDI – THE FOUR SEASONS
Monday, December 12, 2011 8pm
William Noll, Music Director & Conductor
Fifth Avenue Chamber Orchestra
Vivaldi– The Four Seasons (1725) Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter
Piazzolla – The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires (1965-1970)
Numerous composers have written music descriptive of the seasons; most notably Franz Joseph Haydn’s oratorio The Seasons (1801)and the ballet score The Seasons (1899) by Aleksandr Glazunov. This concert is a fascinating pairing of two such works that are connected by far more than nominally representing musically the seasons of the year. The intriguing story of the linking of a composition by an 18th century Italian composer and one by a 20th century Argentinian composer involves two Russians, violinist Gidon Kremer and composer Leonid Desyatnikov.
Born in 1678 in Venice, Antonio Vivaldi learned music from his father, a violinist in the San Marco cathedral orchestra. He became a violin teacher at the Ospedale della Pieta, a church-sponsored orphanage, and later its music director. He later spent substantial time in Mantua and Rome, while maintaining his ties to the Ospedale. He was an extremely prolific composer, producing more than 50 operas, several oratorios and sacred works, and more than 500 concertos. The modern day visitor to Venice cannot help noticing signs all over town for all-Vivaldi concerts in local churches.
The Four Seasons are probably Vivaldi’s best known work, and follow the typical pattern of his concertos: a fast movement (Allegro or Allegro non molto), followed by a slower movement (Largo or Adagio), and concluding with another fast movement (Allegro or Presto). Vivaldi wrote four sonnets, one for each season, with each sonnet in three parts corresponding to the movements. It is fascinating to read these descriptive texts while listening to the concertos. Vivaldi has attempted to imitate some sounds described in the texts, such as bird calls and raindrops, quite literally. The complete Italian text, with English translation, can be found here.
Turning to the other composer on the program, Astor Piazzolla was born in 1921 in Mar del Plata, Argentina, and became a teenage prodigy on the bandoneón, a type of concertina very popular in Argentina as part of a tango orchestra. He ventured into jazz, and studied composition with Nadia Boulanger, who encouraged him to explore a compositional style based on the tango, which later became known as nuevo tango.
In 1965 Piazzolla published Verano Porteña (Buenos Aires Summer), with Otoño Porteña, Invierno Porteña, and Primavera Porteña (autumn, winter and spring) following in 1969 and 1970. The pieces were originally scored for violin, piano, electric guitar, double bass and bandoneón, although they have since been arranged for diverse collections of instruments. (On YouTube.com one can find arrangements for piano trio, for brass and percussion, and for saxophone quartet!)
Noted violinist Gidon Kremer, who had recorded some works of Piazzolla, had become interested in commissioning a contemporary composer to produce a modern version of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons but with the same instrumentation. He was rebuffed by several composers that he approached, but then discovered that Piazzolla had written pieces evocative of the seasons in Buenos Aires. Kremer enlisted the help of composer Leonid Desyatnikov, who had arranged some Piazzolla works for previous recordings. In 1999, after Piazzolla’s death, Desyatnikov arranged the compositions for violin and string orchestra, and it is this version that will be presented in this concert.
Desyatnikov used poetic license quite liberally in these arrangements, going so far as to insert quotes from the Vivaldi pieces into the arranged pieces. For example, in the Piazzolla Summer, an obvious quote from the Vivaldi Winter can be heard. After all, as Desyatnikov was quite aware, when it is summer in Buenos Aires, it is winter in Venice! (Desyatnikov must have been entranced with the subject of the seasons, as he composed a set of ballet pieces called The Russian Seasons for violin, piano, and strings. Here is a sample.
About this effort, Kremer has said, “it is Desyatnikov’s achievement to make Piazzolla speak directly to Vivaldi, and in such a way also Vivaldi to Piazzolla, because using certain quotations of Vivaldi in the context of the score helps to build bridges between these two different geniuses, two different cycles, two different worlds, making them a unit, a unity, giving them full exposure of the vitality, not just on its own but in the dialogue, making this dialogue possible.”
Here are links to the eight pieces, all played by Gidon Kremer:
Spring | Summer | Autumn | Winter
Piazzolla – The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires (1965-1970)
Spring | Summer | Autumn | Winter
