November 28, 2018 The Cleveland Orchestra Performs Vivaldi’s Four Seasons

Originally posted November 28, 2018 on Instagram.

Friday night I was blessed to see the Cleveland Orchestra perform Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with a few of my cousins and parents. The “Red Priest” and his Four Seasons has been one of my favorite pieces since I was a little girl. Hearing it live for the first time was exciting -hearing the choices made in the interpretation of the music, especially by the solo violinist.
And thanks to the notes from the program I even learned some new information about his musical work of art. “The Four Seasons, was published in 1725, nearly a century before orchestral compositions with a story became popular. In Vivaldi’s time, composers were expected to master rules and structures, not express feelings and paint musical landscapes. That he managed to do both simultaneously may be why his Four Seasons have been so popular for nearly three hundred years.” I also learned that Vivaldi had sonnets copied into the published score for each concerto’s movements (see pictures to read). I also appreciated that the Cleveland orchestra stayed true to performance tradition by not using a full orchestra we use to today, but only used the amount of instruments Vivildi required.
Severance Hall is gorgeous and the acoustics are out of this world! The sound and dynamic changes were so clean and vivid.
And let’s just be honest. Vivaldi invented the drop in a song. 😂 Just listen to Winter’s first movement, Allegro non molto.

The evening ended with Haydn’s Symphony No. 94 also known as the “Surprise” Symphony. Haha 😉 always delightful.