2021 (dates to follow)
Antonio Vivaldi
The Four Seasons
Fri and Sat | 8:30pm | St. Stephen’s
Performers
Harmonia Ensemble Vienna
Programme
A. Vivaldi, The Four Seasons (op. 8)
J. Haydn, The Seasons (Hob. XXI:3, extracts in quartet version)
In this concert of Vivaldi's Four Seasons at Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral, listen to the gentle winds and violent thunderstorms, bird voices and the barking of a dog, the hunting and a farmer's dance that Vivalid draws on the scores. Vivaldi knew like no other how to create musical images that stimulate the imagination and captivate the audience.
Where would it be more fitting to perform Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" - a parable of life and death - than in St. Stephen's Cathedral, where his funeral festivities were celebrated after the composer's death in 1741? In 1740, a poor Vivaldi arrived in Vienna, with high hopes for patronage from the Emperor. Only ten months after his arrival, Vivaldi passed away and was therefore buried in Vienna.
Aside from playing in orchestras, the musicians of the Harmonia Ensemble Vienna perform with great efficacy and pleasure as a chamber ensemble, always with the aim of broadening their musical abilities and horizons. The musicians thus followed an old tradition, as is customary with established orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic.