# Vivaldi's Four Seasons...I'm hooked on Winter!!



## saabdave (Jun 28, 2012)

Im relatively new to the classical music scene but I just cant stop playing this piece...I'm hooked on Vivaldi's Winter! Summer's great but Winter is just fantastic and really gets me going! 
Its got that bad that I've actually gone out and bought 3x Four Seasons CD's from HMV!!! I haven't bought a CD in a good 6 or 7 years as I download all my music!! I've also been downloading a few other Summer & Winter's to compare and try find my favourite violinist & orchestra, I've found a couple nice pieces but none as good as Mari Samuelsen....simply amazing, a few of the other pieces have one or two parts I'm not keen on (either too fast/quiet/missing notes) but I cant find anything to fault with her, just brilliant.

The CD's are good (2x Nigel Kennedy and the other is Peter Vladimirov) but still not as good as these couple youtube clips by Mari Samuelsen:










I've tried a few music shops but cant find any of her CD's, also these seem to be the only vids I can find online except for a couple more youtube clips....where else should I be looking?

Also are there any other violinists to consider for this piece? I'm trying to find the perfect winter


----------



## mud (May 17, 2012)

If you cannot find an audio recording of it, I would suggest "demuxing" the video file, if that is your favorite version. Then you can listen to it as an mp3.


----------



## saabdave (Jun 28, 2012)

mud said:


> If you cannot find an audio recording of it, I would suggest "demuxing" the video file, if that is your favorite version. Then you can listen to it as an mp3.


Hi, i've got that sorted thanks. I've done this with all my youtube music vids.

Find the HQ/HD version, copied the link to http://keepvid.com/ then downloaded it to mp4 at its highest setting (usually 480p but some are 720p, saved to HD then converted again to mp3 at 320kpbs with a program called All2MP3. (All this in on Mac, could be different with windows?)

The SQ is pretty good at 320kpbs, not as good as FLAC or Apple Lossless but decent enough.

HTH Dave


----------



## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

Yeah love Winter and Spring the most. Vivaldi's Four Seasons is a Masterpiece.


----------



## Stargazer (Nov 9, 2011)

Winter's always been my favorite too...I like your taste


----------



## graaf (Dec 12, 2009)

Best winters I've heard would be by Janine Jansen and Kyung-Wha Chung.


----------



## mud (May 17, 2012)

saabdave said:


> I cant find anything to fault with her, just brilliant.


Then you have already found your perfect winter. HTH.


----------



## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

Nay, Autumn is superior!


----------



## gurthbruins (May 12, 2010)

And I can't find anything to fault with Peter Vladimirov's 'Winter' - to me his playing is unbelievable, electrifying, transcendent, and makes me think Vivaldi is in a class of his own, unequalled by the great 3 Bach, Mozart, Beethoven - I could hear Winter twice a day for the rest of my life, I couldn't do that with anyother composer: their music is too intellectual, Vivaldi is direct through the senses - but it's a wine that never tires. Sheer inspiration.


----------



## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

A lovely concerto that will forever be popular as a Baroque piece. The middle movement says it all.


----------



## Lucifer Saudade (May 19, 2015)

I like this one:


----------



## Ludric (Oct 29, 2014)

The best performance I've heard of the Four Seasons was by the ensemble known as Il Giardino Armonico. This group plays on period instruments using historical performance practices, but what sets them apart is how they explore the range of timbral possibilities of their instruments and how they play with such life and vitality.

Here is a performance of Vivaldi's Winter. I guarantee that you have never heard it played this way before, especially the second movement:


----------



## echmain (Jan 18, 2013)

Have you heard this? It was written by the late James Horner specifically for Mari and her brother Hakon (cellist).

I'm listening to it right now on via Apple Music. Pretty nice. Not surprisingly it has a soundtrack quality to it. (I'm not saying that as a bad thing).


----------

