Vivaldi, Guarnieri: The Four Seasons

Of the twelve concertos of the Cimento dell’Armonia e dell’Invenzione op. VIII, published in Amsterdam in 1725 but probably composed around 1720, the Seasons are the first four and ever since the eighteenth century have been the most celebrated ones. We know little of their origin and the circumstances that led Vivaldi to link the music of each season to the verses of a sonnet printed at the beginning and repeated verse by verse inside the score, with detailed references. Nor do we know the identity of the anonymous author of the four sonnets which, given their modest lack of precision and their close relationship with the music, may even have been written by the composer himself. The sonnets of the SeasonsA chance event – a request from Venice”s Accademia di San Rocco – was what initially encouraged Adriano Guarnieri in 2002 to undertake Spring, which then became the starting point for Seasons (commissioned by the Ensemble Respighi conducted by Federico Ferri and first performed in Bologna on 27th November 2003, with Annamaria Morini, flute, and Marco Rogliano, violin), the beginning of a journey in which the relationship with Vivaldi is gradually transformed in the direction of a growing autonomy. We could call it a journey from the rethinking of Vivaldi to Guarnieri.