VIVALDI: The Four Seasons

I Solisti Veneti, Claudio Scimone

Picture Format: 16:9
Sound Format: LPCM stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1
Running Time: 112 mins
Region Code: PAL All
Booklet Languages: GB, F, D
Recording Date: 2003
Cat no.: DV-COFS

TDK presents a very special programme in true Italianate style: the evergreen Four Seasons concerti, performed in what could have been their original setting.

Played in some of the most magnificent Venetian Villas the familiar pieces gain a whole new aspect. Andrea Palladio, the 16th century architect, who gave a whole epoch its name, designed some of the houses and the beauty of the architecture adds to the music's narrative programme. The musical descriptions of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter are brought even more vividly to life in these beautiful Venetian surroundings.

The renowned Italian Baroque specialists I Solisti Veneti and their director Claudio Scimone are closely linked with the renaissance in Italian musical life over recent decades. Their tireless musical searches have unearthed lost treasures by Vivaldi, Rossini, Donizetti, Spontini and Ponchielli and re-established them in the repertoire. Here I Solisti Veneti evoke the seasons in five different Villas in Venice. In these surroundings the music unfolds its wealth of colours and imagination and the DVD gives viewers the chance to revive this memorable musical event and join the musicians on their journey through the treasures of Palladian architecture.

This DVD also includes an explanation by Claudio Scimone of the music of The Four Seasons, its history and sources.

"...until my ears became accustomed to the sound of Baroque instrument copies, [Vivaldi's] concerti struck me more as curiosities. Scimone, however, transformed Vivaldi for me into a wonderful composer in his own right." www.classical.net