The entire affair is well paced, not too fast, not too slow, with contrasts, pauses, extensions, and such providing color to each little tone picture. Falletta handle all this? As I said earlier, she approaches it with an elegant, refined affection, and the violin solos by Nikki Chooi are beautiful. While most of us hardly remember the other eight concertos in the set, we cannot easily forget the first four, if only because they’ve been recorded so many times on practically every instrument known to man. Vivaldi intended the music to accompany four descriptive sonnets, and they constitute the first four parts of a longer work he titled Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione ("The Contest between Harmony and Invention"). Almost everybody recognizes the four tone poems with their chirping birds, galumphing horses, barking hounds, and dripping icicles. Italian composer, violinist, impresario, teacher, and priest Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) wrote Le quattro stagioni (“The Four Seasons”) between 17. No, it’s the inclusion of Astor Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires that makes the album worthwhile. It’s just that it probably isn’t different enough from the multitude of other good recordings of the piece most of us already have on our shelves to warrant a purchase for the Seasons alone. I have always enjoyed the work of conductor JoAnn Falletta and her Buffalo Philharmonic, and her performance of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is as elegantly affectionate as any I’ve heard. I have the vinyl and it's very nice, but I'm sure there are high def remasters by now since it is a classic by most standards.Don’t get me wrong. I've read that violinist Alan Loveday ripped through it in 40 uninterrupted minutes after the band came back from various "watering holes", as they hadn't been able to get through it that morning so took a break. Try the 1969 Decca release by Academy of St Martin-in-the Fields, Neville Marriner conducting.
Something about the sound that really works for this piece, and Vivaldi in general. You may want to check out one of the better recordings with period instruments too for a much different take. One of the first CDs that made it to market, and one of the first in my collection, but still shames most made today. Yeah, I have quite a few on CD and LP, but that's always been my favorite. Not sure if this is the best, but I think I got the recommendation here several years ago. I have Seiji Ozawa - Boston Symphony Orchestra w/Joseph Silverstein on violin.
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