Concerto No. 3

At a glance

• What it isthe third and last movement of 'Autumn' from The Four Seasons, a fast Allegro subtitled 'The Hunt'.
• Who, when, whythe finale of the 'Autumn' concerto in Vivaldi's collection published in 1725.
• What to listen forthe horn calls imitated by the orchestra, and the hunted beast depicted by the solo violin.

Listen for

• Hornsthe orchestra begins with a brisk theme in three that sounds like hunting horns.
• The chasethe solo violin runs up and down quickly, depicting the fleeing beast, while the orchestra cuts in as if imitating gunshots and barking dogs.
• Collapsewhere the beast falls exhausted, the solo violin's figures grow weaker, and at the end the hunters' theme returns to close.

When it was written

The Four Seasons are the first four concertos of Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione, a collection Vivaldi published in Amsterdam in 1725. Each comes with a sonnet describing its season, and the score marks which line of the poem each passage depicts. The sonnets are sometimes thought to be by Vivaldi himself, but this is not certain.

For the aristocrats of Vivaldi's time hunting was a pleasant pastime, and the horn call was the sound that most called it to mind. The sonnet for this movement describes not only the hunters but the beast as well, terrified, exhausted and wounded.