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Another new recording of The Four Seasons? And why not? 

"It was the work's nature as a visionary masterpiece that prompted us to contemplate "yet another" recording, since music of such magnificence still permits entirely new interpretations...Moreover, we consulted an often neglected manuscript source, the "Manchester manuscript", which offers extremely intriguing variants, especially as regards articulation, shedding new light on certain passages." Amandine Beyer 

If there is one work that has been recorded an incalculable number of times, it is undoubtedly Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Since the rediscovery of its composer in the 1930s, this score has become the emblem of his output, and has been committed to disc in many different versions representing the most diverse and varied aesthetic approaches, sometimes radically opposed to one another. So, you quite rightly wonder, why bother to make a new recording? 

There are many reasons. First of all, despite its celebrity, The Four Seasons is a masterpiece of the violin literature and of the classical repertoire in general. This cycle of concertos has often been scorned because of its programmatic aspect, which has been interpreted as a sign of weakness in the composition and its discourse. But it was precisely this programme that stimulated Vivaldi's imagination to create the most original concertos of his oeuvre, and even of the whole late Baroque era. In structural terms, none of the four concertos representing the seasons resembles any other concerto by the composer. Ever surprising, ever imaginative, Vivaldi pushes violin technique and concerto form beyond their customary limits, to obtain a result that was totally unprecedented at the time. 

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