Summer - Further Fields

Donald Macleod explores Vivaldi’s successes outside his native Venice, across Italy and throughout Europe.

As performer, composer, impresario, musical director, and teacher, Antonio Vivaldi was a key figure in the musical life of Baroque Italy. Thanks to his set of Concertos “The Four Seasons”, he remains one of the most famous and best loved composers today. This week, Donald Macleod puts these four celebrated concertos front and centre as he also explores the four seasons of Vivaldi’s own life, lingering a little in his summer. We'll follow him from the start of his musical story, teaching at the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice, through his time as an opera composer, catering to the crowds who swarmed to Venice during carnival season, to his successes away from Venice. Vivaldi had many highs in his career, however he also had some difficult low points, finding himself embroiled in scandal and accused of immoral behaviour, before dying in poverty in a foreign city – his star having fallen from favour.

In Wednesday’s episode, Donald explores Vivaldi’s successes outside his native Venice, across Italy and throughout Europe, where the financial rewards could be much higher than on home soil.

Armida - Act I Scene 13: “Armata di furore”
Sara Mingardo, contralto (Armida)
Concerto Italiano
Rinaldo Alessandrini, director

O Mie Porpora, RV 685
Delphine Galou, contralto
Accademia Bizantina
Ottavio Dantone, conductor

Concerto for Multiple Instruments, 'per l'orchestra di Dresda' in G minor, RV 576
Amandine Beyer, violin
Gli Incogniti

Magnificat in G minor, RV 610b
Suzie LeBlanc, soprano
Danièle Forget, soprano
Richard Cunningham, counter-tenor
Henry Ingram, tenor
Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra
Tafelmusik Baroque Chamber Choir
Jeanne Lamon, conductor

Violin Concerto in G minor, Op 8 no. 2 RV 315 “Summer”
La Serenissima
Adrian Chandler, conductor