The Four Seasons: Spring

At a glance

• What it isa concerto for solo violin and string ensemble. This is the first of its three movements, fast-slow-fast.
• Who, when, whyVenetian composer Vivaldi placed it first in his collection The Contest Between Harmony and Invention, published in Amsterdam in 1725.
• What to listen forone spring theme returning again and again, and nature's sounds painted in between.

Listen for

• The spring themea short, sturdy tune for the whole ensemble. Each time it returns, a scene has ended.
• The birdsthe solo violin and other violins trill and chirp high up.
• The stormlow strings churn roughly while the solo violin flashes up and down; then the birdsong returns.

When it was written

Born in Venice, Vivaldi was ordained a priest but lived his whole life as a musician. For many years he taught violin and composed at the Ospedale della Pietà, a home caring for girls without parents, and he staged operas in Venice and elsewhere. His concertos number in the hundreds.

The collection containing The Four Seasons came out in 1725 through an Amsterdam publisher. Vivaldi was then in his mid-forties and already known across Europe as a composer of concertos. Each of the four concertos carries a sonnet for its season, and markings throughout the score show which line of the poem is being depicted. Fitting a story inside the concerto's framework of returning themes was the work's novelty.