Read below for program notes for the Focus Series concert “The Four Seasons” on October 22, 2025. Program notes are written by Jeremy Reynolds Copyright © 2025.
The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Vivaldi published his Four Seasons in a collection of 12 concertos in 1725 and included accompanying sonnets he had likely penned himself.
This is one of the earliest “program music,” wherein a composer attempts to convey an extramusical idea or story through glossing the music with a suggestive title or text to guide listeners. In his attempts to illustrate the sonnets in music, Vivaldi — also known as “The Red Priest” due to his flaming red hair and brief clerical stint — is at times quite literal in his musical representation, such as the second movement of the “Spring” concerto, when the viola section representing the bark of a dog with its pairs of gruff, repeated tones.
At the time, this was a revolutionary concept. Some scholarship suggests that audiences might have had a cool reaction to such newfangled music, perhaps foreshadowing Vivaldi’s fall from stardom later in life as the public perpetually chased the next great genius. Still, The Four Seasons remains his most recognizable work today.
Below is the full text of the sonnets glossing each concerto; cautious, imaginative listening will peel back Vivaldi’s layers of text painting:
SPRING:
Allegro: 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.
Largo: On the flower-strewn meadow, with leafy branches rustling overhead, the goat-herd sleeps, his faithful dog beside him.
Allegro: Led by the festive sound of rustic bagpipes, nymphs and shepherds lightly dance beneath the brilliant canopy of spring.
SUMMER:
Allegro non molto: Beneath the blazing sun’s relentless heat men and flocks are sweltering, pines are scorched. We hear the cuckoo’s voice; then sweet songs of the turtle dove and finch are heard. Soft breezes stir the air….but threatening north wind sweeps them suddenly aside. The shepherd trembles, fearful of violent storm and what may lie ahead.
Adagio e piano – Presto e forte: His limbs are now awakened from their repose by fear of lightning’s flash and thunder’s roar, as gnats and flies buzz furiously around.
Presto: Alas, his worst fears were justified, as the heavens roar and great hailstones beat down upon the proudly standing corn.
AUTUMN:
Allegro: The peasant celebrates with song and dance the harvest safely gathered in. The cup of Bacchus flows freely, and many find their relief in deep slumber.
Adagio molto: The singing and the dancing die away as cooling breezes fan the pleasant air, inviting all to sleep without a care.
Allegro: The hunters emerge at dawn, ready for the chase, with horns and dogs and cries. Their quarry flees while they give chase. Terrified and wounded, the prey struggles on, but, harried, dies.
WINTER:
Allegro non molto: Shivering, frozen mid the frosty snow in biting, stinging winds; running to and fro to stamp one’s icy feet, teeth chattering in the bitter chill.
Largo: To rest contentedly beside the hearth, while those outside are drenched by pouring rain.
Allegro: 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 coarse through the home despite the locked and bolted doors… this is winter, which nonetheless brings its own delights.
The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires by Astor Piazzolla
Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla is best remembered as a writer of tango music, but some purists disagreed with this categorization. One tango enthusiast allegedly felt so strongly that Piazzolla was bastardizing true tango with other musical styles and harmonies that he threatened the composer with a gun, though it was Piazzolla himself who the press later dubbed the “tango assassin.”
Born in the Argentinian city of Mar del Plata, Piazzolla emigrated with his parents to New York City at the age of 4, but he grew up listening to his father’s records of tango music and fell in love with the sharp rhythms and sultry melodies. He bought his signature instrument, a bandoneon, or a sort of accordion, from a pawn shop when he was 8 years old, and he wrote his own first little tango when he was 11. When his family returned to their native country, the young Astor began playing in a variety of tango bands and orchestras. He moved to Argentina, playing in the clubs at night and studying composition during the day.
Piazzolla’s traditional tangos were well-liked. It was his nuevo tango that infuriated the traditionalists, with their melodies and harmonic progressions inspired by composers like Stravinsky and Bartók and other classical and jazz composers. This music fit somewhere in between the dance halls of his native country and the classical concert halls he aspired to at times, an uncomfortable niche that didn’t bring him the fame he deserved in his lifetime.
While his Four Seasons share an obvious link with the famous Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi, they aren’t an homage. Piazzolla composed them as four separate pieces over the course of about 15 years that he played together from time to time, and since he completed them, several composers have taken it upon themselves to pen arrangements. One of the most commonly heard is by the Russian musician Leonid Desyatnikov, who scored his interpretation for solo violin and string orchestra and sprinkled in quotes from the Vivaldi score to demonstrate a more direct link between the two works.
They’re often performed together in concert programs today. Piazzolla’s take on the seasons is angular and humid, heavy rhythms contrasting with sharp, lightning-quick playing in the violin. They are a classic example of his nuevo tango.