Sunday, September 18, 2011

Antonio Vivaldi - The Four Seasons (L'autunno)

Wednesday marks the Autumn Equinox, the first day of autumn.  As you'd expect, there's terrific classical music for this occasion; as a matter of fact, you've probably heard it.

Antonio Vivaldi was one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his Four Seasons suite of four violin concertos is without doubt his most famous work.  Sadly for him, it didn't help him very much - the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI died before appointing him court composer, and Vivaldi (like Mozart after him) died in poverty.

But there aren't many who leave behind a legacy such as this.  Vivaldi's life story in a way matches the mood of autumn, with a glorious youth behind it and a cold, poor finish ahead of it.

But don't let me harsh your mellow!  The music is sublime, and there's still three more days of summer left!

5 comments:

  1. BobGSeptember 18, 2011 at 11:15 AM

    One of my favorite baroque composers. I listened to a lot of his stuff while writing programming code, baroque music seemed to help with my thinking.

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  2. Guffaw in AZSeptember 18, 2011 at 12:55 PM

    I'm channeling PDQ Bach...
    "If it's Baroque, don't fix it!"

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  3. SixSeptember 18, 2011 at 3:08 PM

    Where did I first hear Vivaldi?
    In Soylent Green. I am so ashamed. Edward G. Robinson was one heck of an actor.

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  4. BorepatchSeptember 18, 2011 at 3:15 PM

    Six, that was a great scene.

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  5. libertymanSeptember 18, 2011 at 8:28 PM

    It would be a pun to say that Vivaldi is a perennial favorite of mine, so I won't bring that up.

    ReplyDelete

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