Apollo’s Fire/Photo: Mark Nelson
Every music lover is familiar with Antonio Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons,” right? Since their composition around 1718-1720, this delightful quartet of violin concerti has reigned as one of the world’s most beloved pieces of music. In America, “The Four Seasons” enjoyed a notable bump in popularity in the 1980s as the yuppie generation adopted the work as the quintessential background music for elegant dinner parties. Its “Spring” motif has since been heard in every other dry-white-wine commercial and as a ringtone from virtually every cellphone carrier.
Paradoxically, such ubiquity has obliterated our sense of how revolutionary this work was; for “The Four Seasons” was a prescient example of narrative “program music” at a time when that concept had not fully emerged.
This brings us to “Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons’ Rediscovered,” an intriguing program from the internationally acclaimed Baroque orchestra Apollo’s Fire and conductor Jeannette Sorrell. The program was heard at the Ravinia Festival in 2017 and will make a welcome return to Ravinia’s Martin Theatre on August 15, after scoring laudatory reviews all over the globe.
So why did this piece need rediscovery?
“We all tend to think we know the ‘Four Seasons,’” Maestro Sorrell reflects. “We’ve all heard it in the elevator. It has come to be taken for granted. But in fact, Vivaldi was telling a vibrant and exciting story with this music, and he indicated all of that in great detail in the score. He was telling of the lives of the contadini, the eighteenth-century Italian peasants who lived and celebrated the changing of the seasons.”
There are specific characters at work here. “In the ‘Spring’ and ‘Summer’ concertos we meet a shepherd boy who is trying to nap on the hillside and gets caught in a thunderstorm,” Sorrell explains, “That storm can sweep the hats off your heads. Then in ‘Autumn’ we meet the peasants who are celebrating the harvest and getting tipsy with wine; and falling asleep from drinking too much! In the third movement, we have an exciting fox hunt.”
Sorrell introduces each of the concerti with a “sonic tour” of the themes to be encountered. “It makes a significant difference. The audience hears the babbling brook, the barking dog, the drunken farmer, the flies and wasps; so, when we play the piece continuously, they are able to follow the story.”
The result is a highly visceral experience of the concerti that may come as a surprise to many listeners. “For example,” Sorrell elucidates, “Vivaldi marks the barking dog molto forte a strappato. ‘Strappato’ means ripping the string. It’s a very earthy, rough sound, and not what we are used to hearing from most ensembles.”
Patrons who hit Ravinia’s website for tickets are advised to click on their desired seating section, as there is available seating that may get missed with a casual glance.
It’s worth that extra effort though; for as Sorrell observes “I think people will find that there is a lot more in this music than they ever realized.”
“Apollo’s Fire: Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons’ Rediscovered” takes place on August 15 at Ravinia Festival’s Martin Theatre, via 200 Ravinia Park Road, Highland Park. Gates at 5pm; concert at 7:30pm. Tickets for reserved seats are $50-$75, available at ravinia.org.
