Sentimental Work
ADRIAN CHANDLER
Vivaldi’s op.8 set of violin concertos – including the Four Seasons – was an early inspiration for the British Baroque violinist and founder of the orchestra La Serenissima
TOP PHOTO LIA VITTONE. MAIN PHOTO ROBIN BIGWOOD
I was ten years old when I heard the whole of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons for the first time. I’d started learning the violin two years earlier, and I’d already had a go at playing the composer’s A minor Concerto op.3 no.6 and liked it. So at Christmastime I noticed BBC Radio 3 was airing a concert by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields which included the Four Seasons, with Iona Brown as soloist. She was such a great player and I immediately thought that these were a jaw-dropping set of pieces. It was only later that I discovered they were part of a much larger set of twelve concertos, The Contest between Harmony and Invention, which stimulated my curiosity even more.