Vivaldi: The Four Seasons

On his second album for Sony Classical, set to be released on April 12, violinist Luka Faulisi presents a highly individual interpretation of Vivaldi’s pioneering masterpiece, The Four Seasons.

Violinists from every generation have responded to Vivaldi’s set of four violin concertos, whose descriptions of the natural world broke new ground three centuries ago. With his new recording, Faulisi was determined not to simply ‘make one more version’ of Vivaldi’s work. ‘People rarely examine the composer’s thinking or his vision of nature,’ the violinist says. 

As in Faulisi’s debut album, Aria, storytelling is to the fore. The violinist’s cinematic approach to The Four Seasons involved encouraging members of the orchestra to engage with the composer’s onomatopoeic animal and nature sounds and adding percussion not found in the original scores. Faulisi has also opted to splice Vivaldi’s concertos with three complementary works inspired by the seasons: a traditional Catalan melody made famous by Pablo Casals, El cant dels ocells; the haunting Nocturne by Lili Boulanger; and an excerpt from Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons, "October - Autumn Song", a piece of understated romanticism inspired by Tolstoy. 

The works combine Vivaldi’s sense of virtuosity with constant outpourings of melody and orchestral colour. The most vivid episodes from within the music range from ceremonial dances, drunken parties and spirited hunts to moments of calm by the fireside. We hear musical depictions of the joys of spring, the trembling cold of winter and the oppressive heat of summer.  This venture into Baroque repertoire further proves the Italian-French-Serbian violinist’s versatility and virtuosity while underlining his key strength as a musical storyteller. 

Photo credit: Dovile Sermokas