A program full of magnificent works for strings. Not only in Vivaldi’s world-famous The Four Seasons, but also in pieces by Locatelli and Bartók, the musicians make full use of their instruments.
In Locatelli’s gracious Concerto Grosso in C minor the musicians shine in short solo passages. Vivaldi was a brilliant violinist like his contemporary Locatelli, and he reveals his mastery in The Four Seasons. This universally loved classic was already extremely popular in his day. It unleashed a veritable revolution in musical representation, evoking images of babbling brooks, singing birds, a barking dog, buzzing flies, storms, drunken dancers, frozen landscapes and a crackling winter fire. Bartók combines folk dances with Baroque elements in his Divertimento, one of the great 20th-century works for string orchestra. The high-spirited, even swinging outer movements contrast strongly with the slow, chilling middle movement, giving it even greater depth.
