# How I finally came into terms with Vivaldi (A call to simple love)



## Air

For those of you who know me well, you probably know that I can often have the elitist attitude of looking down on more mainstream classical works simply because I feel that I have moved on to something better, an intellectual step higher from where I was before. The natural idea of progression has become so infiltrated in society since the Enlightenment that it dominates even the way many of us "appreciate" art.

So some of you will be surprised that my first blog post is not about a piece of obscurity or one of those wonderful golden-age pianists that I often rave about, but rather one of the sheer basics of classical music in general- the dreaded _Four Seasons_ by the dreaded Antonio Vivaldi.

Interestingly, this work has just made the recommendation list in the classical music project. Those of you who participate in it also know that at one point in the project I voted it down with a ruthless fervor.

This blog post is about a simple musical rediscovery - or maybe just a simple discovery, since I had never really "discovered" the work in the first place - that made me see music in what I feel is a much more healthy outlook. For those of you who do not desire to read about Vivaldi, or about the part from Vivaldi's op. 8 concertos that has now come to be known as "The Four Seasons" and receive immense popularity, I ask you not to read on.

But for the rest of you, who don't mind lowering yourself to the level of an average listener, ecstatic upon first discovery, I feel that what I have to write is something that is most worth sharing.

You know, it's funny. I keep on coming back to composers that I've dismissed in the past and start raving over their music. It's really quite pathetic.










Or maybe it's just HOW the music is played. I think I've heard the most vigorous, in-your-face baroque recordings that I've have ever heard, last night. Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante aren't tame, they rip their strings to give you it all. Put your headphones on full blast, and you're in for an experience of a lifetime. Take the twelve op. 8 concerti for instance, called the _Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'invenzione_, and they take it away. Here's some links from the segment commonly known as the "Four Seasons". But don't worry about it being too mundane; the band creates something completely fresh out of the old warhorse.

Spring: 




Here, what I once thought was the most cliche piece in the history of classical music has been turned into something completely different. Biondi takes each note and breathes drama into them, bringing the same passion that once usually expects from composers in the romantic era such as Berlioz, Mahler, and Wagner. However, what is most important is that he still maintains the baroque antiquity that allows it to retain inner "spirituality" and textural purity, the characteristics of baroque music that I love so much, particularly in the music of Bach. When the melody sings, it sings with a complete sincerity, as if it has nothing to prove except for its own existence. And this joy, a joy to be alive and simply exist, gives this music a wonderful energy.

Summer: 




This is the most frightening summer I've ever heard, with absolutely no competition. They rip through the fiendish presto like it's nothing. The whole world is fleeting through an electrically charged vacuum, and the music pulsates like lightening.

Autumn: 




Winter: 




Winter has to be my favorite movement by far. The ominous strings in the beginning of the movement remind me of the nightmarish sounds one hears in the fifth movement of Berlioz's (fantastic) Symphonie Fantastique. Absolutely electrifying! The strings come in so well-matched and perfectly balanced to each other. And the harpsichord provides such a wonderful backdrop and continuo that the music never loses that pulse that Vivaldi is able to give so well.

Now I can't say I 100% agree with Biondi's way of playing, especially in the slow middle movement. It is a bit eccentric, a little bit like pulsing waves, it really doesn't seem "firm" enough for my tastes. But it really works well for the energy of his band.

So for the last few minutes I have sounded like an idiot. I'm enjoying the Four Seasons! That's the sign of a newbie for you. 

Rediscovery ain't anything to be ashamed of. And it's often the performers that provide the insight to the music of the composer that you are looking for. Recreating the music in the way you connect with!










Well, I went a bit further into Vivaldi's oeuvre of over 500 concerti. Most prominent among these are the _L'estro Armonico_ concerti, op. 3. There are 12 of them featuring different combinations of instruments. As I listened, I realized that these works were truly groundbreaking in their composition, especially in their dissonance and experimentation with modal harmony/melody.

Starting with No. 1, of course, I made my way through these almost triumphant works. They speak joy even in the saddest harmonies and most crunching dissonances. In a way, these strange harmonies and dissonances reminded me of Corelli's Concerti Grossi, though I probably like Vivaldi's more. They are just so well constructed and at the same time completely overwhelming in the emotion they convey.

Trevor Pinnock and his band are also famous for their Vivaldi recordings. His style can only be called subtle, yet deep, almost as a perfect understanding between the relationship of yin and yang. It has profundity in it that reminds one of nature's reconciliation with God. It just brings a chill of warmth through the entire body that is entirely refreshing.

Instead of ripping the strings, Pinnock's band sings a song of praise, showing you the beauty of each note and its relation to each of the other notes. His interpretation is intellectual in approach, but at the end it is able to produce both an emotional and spiritual response. It is wonderful.










The other band featured here is Marriner, a modern one. There's no harpsichord here, just plain strings. I have to say that Vivaldi's music played like this sounds too much like Vaughan Williams or Bax. It could even pass for one of Delius's tone poems. That said, it is still beautiful, and Marriner uses the subtlety of modern instruments such as these to bring out warmth from the music. Texturally, the music sounds much lighter than the HIP recording - and this is one of the advantages of HIP, to see the music more clearly by presenting it in its original (designated) form.










So, what does this little discovery hold for me?

Well, a lot in fact. Vivaldi's oeuvre is both deep an diverse, and discovering and rediscovering his works is a process than will never come to an end. His choral works and operas must be next on my agenda of what to listen to. I really do have an affinity for Baroque music, something that I only partly knew until now. But I feel that Baroque music often takes me to a higher place than any other music besides Mozart (there are other exceptions) because the musical voices are so well-weaved and the music is so pure in its texture.

After getting a bit tired of my recent listening trend (Bach, Prokofiev, Liszt, Medtner, Schumann, Prokofiev again, Sibelius, Mahler, Ravel, Mozart again, Bartok, Berlioz, Bach again, Messiaen, Alkan, etc., etc.) It's wonderful to have found something a bit different for me to try. Bach, Handel, Rameau, Scarlatti and Vivaldi are a few of my favorite composers - and I believe that the treasures they hold for me will never meet an end. Curiosity and fate, completely devoid of elitism, will be alone in guiding me to my destination.


----------



## science

The Four Seasons isn't inherently cliche - just familiar.


----------



## Air

Well, I think that for me works such as the Four Seasons, Beethoven's 5th, etc. did lose much of their original meaning and "effect" after becoming too familiar, and it was only after awhile that I could come back to them and again appreciate them as great works of art. I think it's extermely important to understand what over-familiarity can potentially do to a listener in order to balance one's own listening and prevent burning out.


----------



## science

I haven't reached that level of familiarity with any work. There are just too many of them.


----------



## HarpsichordConcerto

These popular concerti constitute the first four of twelve from his opus 8 set, _Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'invenzione_ (The Contest between Harmony and Invention). Anyone who takes the effort to explore some of his other opus sets, say opus 3 (which was very influential in its time, even Bach transcribed pieces from opus 3) can discover real Baroque jewels with pieces that are at least as arresting as the _Four Seasons._ (Bach's concerto for four harpsichords and strings for example, was arranged from opus 3 no.10, which was a concerto for four violins).


----------



## Sid James

I saw Vivaldi's _Gloria_ live last year at Sydney University & it was quite a moving experience. I might even go see the Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra of Sydney play _The Four Seasons_, a work I once also thought was cliched, but now I'm okay with it...


----------



## science

As far as I can tell, in classical music "cliche" only means famous. I understand that professional musicians might get tired of playing Beethoven's 5th, but there's nothing at all actually wrong with the music.


----------

