Search - Antonio Vivaldi, English Chamber Orchestra, Nigel Kennedy :: Antonio Vivaldi: The Four Seasons [Complete]

A highly seasoned work suitable for all ages

John McConnell | Boston, MA | 07/16/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Hello, Listener. With this CD you enter an incredible world of living music.



I watched this performance televised in Scotland in 1993. Kennedy was absolutely impeccable, funny, and wildly eccentric. During the summer section, the floor lights were turned up brightly so that all the performers, except Kennedy, wore sunglasses. It was a spectacle. You felt the chills going up your spine during the violent waves of the (musical) heat as Kennedy seemed to attack his violin. Kennedy is asthmatic, and described his interpretation of Vivaldi's summer as focusing on "the anger of the heat, the violence of the heat". Then Kennedy (tongue-in-cheek) described his autumn interpretation as a perception that the mushroom is not only a psychedelic substance, but also that Vivaldi had in mind foresight of the terrror of the first atomic bomb explosion.



An unconventional interpretation, but certainly the best I've ever heard of this classic."

This is Vivaldi

fritzeroberts | 02/02/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Every performance is editing the original. This edition makes many sleepy versions obsolete. This is more like the Four Seasons should be played, passionate. Not as if Vivaldi was some bored aristocrat with nothing else to do but like he probably was: loving music. My taste in orchestral music is more like Frank Zappa and Edgard Varese. Yet if more classical music was played like this, Vivaldi would get some company on my shelves."

An exhilarating reprise of a well-worn piece

fritzeroberts | 05/05/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If hearing The Four Seasons by Vivaldi make you groan for something new, you ought to give this recording a chance. Performed and directed by Kennedy, this album is a surprising piece of art. The fast movements are driven and powerfully exhilarating while the luscious slow movements provide the perfect contrast. Throughout the recording Kennedy adds the necessary touches that make this a well developed art project: exciting embelishments befitting the piece and composer, cadenzas (some of his own) that add to the flow of the movements, and a steady stream of passion that captivates the ear. Instilled with feeling, this recording of the much over-played Four Seasons leaves the listener looking for more from Nigel Kennedy."