24 MELODIES IN A BOTTLE Composed between 1718 and 1720 by Antonio Vivaldi, four concertos originally written for solo violin, string orchestra, and continuo open the collection Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’invenzione (The Contest between Harmony and Invention), which achieved prodigious fame under the title Il Quattro Stagioni (The Four Seasons). These works are remarkable in that they unite the descriptive elements of a text with the suppleness of rhythmic variation. A text? Indeed, each season is poetically depicted by an Italian sonnet. In this consequently programmatic music, Vivaldi experiments with new sonorities, and the five performers present a collective arrangement of Estate (Summer), at times taking on the character of a paraphrase, even a reminiscence, so bold is their approach: “We no longer really know which timbre predominates, and that is precisely our intention, to create a kind of loss of bearings.” The delight in virtuosity never forces the sound. Instead, it serves the interplay of dialogues emerging as much from the mist as from the most shimmering colours born of a world surrounded by water, perfectly evoking the bewitching atmosphere of the city of the Doges.
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