Vivaldi - The Four Seasons [Salerno Sonnenberg-The Orchestra Of Saint Luke's]I listened to this while walking to Church this morning, along some country back roads, and this was a joy to listen to, the very varied movements of this work were wonderful, whether the sheer joy of the first movement of spring, the sadness of the second movement, the complexity of the first movement of summer, the breathtakingness of the finale, the exuberance of the first movement of autumn, or the virtuosity of the first movement of winter, it seems to have twelve opposite flavours, today this work really shone.
Nadja Solerno-Sonnenberg was born in Italy in 1961, but now she's an American citizen, she recorded this disc in 1990, i really like the booklet cover [by Bonnie West], green is my favourite colour, and the pose by Salerno-Sonnenberg is really good, nice and sharp.
I suppose the part that really got me the most was Summer, the first movement is complex, it goes all over the place, slow and fast, and it's a lovely variety, but i think the movement i liked the most was the finale of summer, depicting a furious thunderous summer storm, it's in a minor key [G Minor], and is really angry, the orchestra and violin seem to alternate passages, the orchestra starts off with a ferociously fast Presto [0:00-0:47], full of menace, but incredible virtuoso too, the soloist enters [0:48-1:06] with some harsh chords, and then the orchestra move in again [1:06-1:29], with more vehement playing, i like the fast playing by the violins towards the end of this section [1:21-1:25], the violin again comes in solo [1:30-1:43] with more harsh chords at the start, but sweeter playing after a while, and later the violin plays solo, but the orchestra quickly join in with wave upon wave of virtuosity [1:58-2:11], wow! this is thrilling and breathtaking, no wonder this is so popular.
Here's the finale from Summer played by Kyung Wha Chung on YouTube.
