It isn't quite true to say listeners today wouldn't know Vivaldi's Four Seasons if I Musici hadn't made the first stereo recording of the work in 1955. The rediscovery of early music was larger than any one ensemble, but I Musici arguably did more than anyone else to popularize the work, and by now, they have the right to play it any way they want. Fortunately, the group's reading of the work remains fresh after 67 years, with a variety of techniques deployed to emphasize the programmatic nature of the music. As many of ...
Read More
It isn't quite true to say listeners today wouldn't know Vivaldi's Four Seasons if I Musici hadn't made the first stereo recording of the work in 1955. The rediscovery of early music was larger than any one ensemble, but I Musici arguably did more than anyone else to popularize the work, and by now, they have the right to play it any way they want. Fortunately, the group's reading of the work remains fresh after 67 years, with a variety of techniques deployed to emphasize the programmatic nature of the music. As many of these are in the orchestra as are in the solo part, and violinist Marco Fiorini does not hog the spotlight. Another novel feature of this 2022 Decca release is the music with which the Vivaldi is paired. Numerous works have filled out a program that includes the Four Seasons, but the added work here may be unique: I Musici perform arrangements, for piano and string orchestra, of four seasonal passages from the ballet music in Verdi's opera I Vespri Siciliani. It's an odd combination,...
Read Less
