Aside from the features that have come to be associated with most of Vivaldi's music - grace, virtuosity, energetic motoric rhythms - the concertos of The Four Seasons are remarkable for their extraordinary programmatic imagination, which is counterbalanced by close attention to formal structure.

8 (1725) - known collectively as The Four Seasons - that remains the composer's best-known and most characteristic work. On the other hand, it is a grouping of four concertos from Vivaldi's Op. Given the sheer quantity of Vivaldi's concertos for violin - he wrote at least 35 in the key of D major alone - it's not surprising that many have lapsed into near-total obscurity. In writing such works for a multitude of different instruments - violin, viola d'amore, cello, mandolin, flute, oboe, bassoon, trumpet, horn, and others - both alone and in various combinations, Vivaldi was a seminal figure in the development of a genre that attained Classical perfection in the works of Mozart and Beethoven, reached its pinnacle in the Romantic works of Paganini, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky, and enjoyed continued currency throughout the twentieth century in the works of composers diverse as Berg, Prokofiev, and Ligeti. Having produced hundreds of examples, Antonio Vivaldi must be regarded as the indisputable king of the Baroque instrumental concerto.

4 seasons violin