Antonio Vivaldi “The Four Seasons”

 

Once again this year, the Early Music Festival will culminate with Antonio Vivaldi’s violin concerto cycle “The Seasons” (Le quattro stagioni) – one of the most popular opuses of classical music, which has been performed and interpreted countless times worldwide. The four violin concertos comprising the cycle were first published in 1725 in a collection titled “The Contest Between Harmony and Invention” (Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione). And indeed, there is no lack of harmony or invention in this music, for Vivaldi took great pleasure in depicting scenes from nature and everyday life, and in writing verbal transcriptions of them in the score. The temperament and lushness of colours encoded in the composition unleashes the interpreters' imagination, but it also requires a brilliant playing technique and lively musicality. This time, it will be the bright violinist Daishin Kashimoto who will be proving it with Sinfonietta Rīga! Born in London and raised in Tokyo, he attended the renowned Juilliard School in New York and studied in Lübeck and Freiburg. Since 2009, this talented soloist has also been known as a concertmaster of the legendary Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The virtuoso artist has earned special attention for his ability to detect subtle nuances in even the seemingly most familiar scores and to illuminate their unexplored emotional depths.
At the beginning of the concert, conductor Andris Veismanis, well-versed in the early and baroque music repertoire, will shine a light on other gems of the first half of the 18th century along with the experienced chamber orchestra. Alongside the French Baroque master Jean-Philippe Rameau's suite from the allegorical tragedy “Zoroastre” (Zoroaster), there will also be excerpts from German master Georg Philipp Telemann's celebrated Tafelmusik and his compatriot Georg Friedrich Händel's iconic Concerti Grossi.

 

 

 

 

Participants

Daishin Kashimoto, violin (Japan)
Sinfonietta Rīga
Conductor Andris Veismanis