Vivaldi, Antonio

Antonio Vivaldi – Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’inventione, Op.8: La Primavera

(b. Venice, 4. March 1678 – d. Vienna, 28. July 1741)

Preface (Clémence Destribois, 2018)
The Four Seasons (Le quattro stagioni) are the first four items of Vivaldi’s Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’inventione, Op. 8, a partbook collection of twelve concertos for violin published in 1725 in Amsterdam by Le Cène. The collection was dedicated to the Bohemian count Wenzel von Morzin, Chamberlain to the Habsburg emperor Charles VI. There is evidence that several of the concertos included in the Op.8 were written at an earlier date (probably around 1720), and Vivaldi reveals in the dedicatory epitstle that the count already knew the first four concertos. There are no extant autograph manuscripts of The Four Seasons. Other sources for La Primavera include two extant manuscripts, one held at the Paris conservatoire and another including all four concertos in The Four Seasons preserved in the Manchester Central Library. The present publication is a reprint of the 1950 Ricordi publication edited by Gian Francesco Malipiero, which was itself based on the 1725 Le Cène publication mentioned above.

The Four Seasons are accompanied by sonnets of an unknown author (possibly Vivaldi himself) illustrating what the music intends to represent, making the set one of the first instances of programme music. The sonnets include cue-letters also found in the partbooks to allow cross-reference between the text and specific passages in the music. The sonnet for La primavera, shown below, evokes the beauties of nature and festivities connected to that season:

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