Vivaldi’s Four Seasons on Decca Eclipse

At high school, one of the ‘set’ ‘A’ level music works was Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons (Le Quatro Stagione). Looking back now, after more than 50 years I cannot recall what “seasons” were chosen for study. The LP that was used, I think, was the violinist Michel Schwalbé with the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Herbert von Karajan. It had been released on the Deutsche Grammophon label (2530 296) in 1972. 

As an impecunious teenager, I could not afford this version, so after a visit to Cuthbertson’s music shop in Cambridge Street, Glasgow (long closed), I ended up purchasing the Decca Eclipse version (ECS 506) which featured Reinhold Barchet, violin, and The Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, under the auspices of Karl Münchinger. This recording had been made during March 1951, at the Victoria Hall, Geneva. It was originally issued on Decca’s Orange/Gold Label (LXT2600) in August of that year. It has been subject of several repackagings over the years.

As always with Decca Eclipse records, I was impressed by the sleeve cover which featured photograph of Penrhyn Castle. This is an impressive country house in Llandygai, Bangor, Gwynedd, North Wales. It was constructed in the style of a Norman castle. Sadly, more than forty years elapsed until I managed to visit this impressive pile.

When excerpts from this work are played on Classic fM, the presenter rarely explains that the entire The Four Seasons are four violin or concerto grosso taken from a larger collection entitled Il Cimento dell′ Armonia e dell′ Inventione (The Contest Between Harmony and Invention). It was not until 1927 that The Seasons were first published in a modern edition, by Bernardino Molinari. He later gave the first full performance in the United States during January 1928, accompanied by the St Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Equally omitted from any spoken introduction to these works on the wireless, is reference to the accompanying literary text. All four concertos are prefaced by a sonnet, written by an anonymous poet, but quite possibly Vivaldi himself.

Each concerto is a tone poem, or literal programme music which musically suggests the texts of the sonnets:

1. 1.      La Primavera (Spring)
2. 2.      L’Estate (Summer)
3. 3.      L’Autumno (Autumn)
4. 4.      L’Inverno (Winter)

As each work unfolds, they “evoke and imitate many a vignette of pastoral life and landscape – peasant dances, sleeping goatherds, gentle breezes, flowing streams, thunderstorms and other miniatures.”

Reviewing the initial release, The Gramophone (August 1951, p.51) declared that the performance was “done with considerable finesse and quality.” Lionel Salter, (The Gramophone, October 1951, p.101) considers that previous versions of The Seasons “cannot hold a candle to the present set, played in remarkably authentic fashion by this remarkable ensemble, who seem to be able to satisfy musicologists and the ordinary music lover alike.” Whether current day practitioners of authentic instruments, would entirely agree, is another matter.