The celebrity of Vivaldi's Four Seasons violin concertos is comparatively recent; even in the 1960s they were not terribly often performed or recorded. As of the release of this 2016 album by violist David Aaron Carpenter there are said to be more than 1,000 recordings of the concertos, and even the pairing with Astor Piazzolla's Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas, or Buenos Aires Four Seasons (a "porteña" is a resident of Buenos Aires, the Port City), has gotten a bit stale, even though Piazzolla's four pieces are only in the ...
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The celebrity of Vivaldi's Four Seasons violin concertos is comparatively recent; even in the 1960s they were not terribly often performed or recorded. As of the release of this 2016 album by violist David Aaron Carpenter there are said to be more than 1,000 recordings of the concertos, and even the pairing with Astor Piazzolla's Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas, or Buenos Aires Four Seasons (a "porteña" is a resident of Buenos Aires, the Port City), has gotten a bit stale, even though Piazzolla's four pieces are only in the loosest terms a set. Carpenter's album has a twist on that, but that's only the beginning of its innovations. You might feel that novelty is being thrown at you thick and fast, or that the project is thoroughly fresh; at any rate, the album isn't boring. One new thing is that you're getting 12 seasons instead of eight (the four of Vivaldi and the four of Piazzolla): Carpenter commissions a rather gloomy Four Seasons of Manhattan from composer Alexey Shor. Your mileage may vary, but even...
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