On November 13, one of the leading ensembles of the St. Petersburg Concert — the Divertissement Chamber Orchestra — and its artistic director and soloist, Honoured Artist of Russia Ilya Ioff, invite you to the Fabergé Museum for one of the orchestra's most famous and beloved programmes: "The Seasons for All Time." The orchestra's repertoire includes no fewer than 12 different works bearing this title — from Vivaldi's immortal cycle to pieces by contemporary minimalist composers. As a rule, the musicians structure a single programme around the changing of the seasons.
The programme on 13 November is devoted to autumn and winter. That evening, audiences will hear: "Winter" by Antonio Vivaldi; "October. Autumn Song" and "December. Christmas Tide" by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky from his cycle *The Seasons*; "Winter" by Max Richter from *Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Recomposed*; "Autumn" by Sergei Akhunov; "Autumn" and "Winter" from *The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires* by Astor Piazzolla; and "Autumn" and "Winter" by Osvaldo Requena.
Antonio Vivaldi's witty and sumptuously Baroque *Four Seasons* brings together four concertos for violin and strings. In 1725, one of Vivaldi's most celebrated collections saw the light of day — Opus 8, consisting of twelve violin concertos and bearing the subtitle "The Contest Between Harmony and Invention." The composer gave the first four concertos of this opus the titles "Spring," "Summer," "Autumn," and "Winter." Each is preceded by a short sonnet, presumably written by Vivaldi himself. In modern performance practice, the concertos are often grouped together as *The Four Seasons* — a title that does not appear in the original.
Tchaikovsky's *The Seasons* was composed in 1875–1876 on a commission from the well-known St. Petersburg publisher N. M. Bernard, who approached the composer with the idea of writing a cycle of piano pieces for the journal *Nuvellist* — pieces that would be published monthly and thus form a complete yearly round. Strictly speaking, the title *The Seasons* is not entirely accurate in this case, since Tchaikovsky, with his characteristic psychological depth, depicted not so much the yearly cycle of nature as the ever-changing, multifaceted feelings of the human soul. Tchaikovsky's *Seasons* became extraordinarily popular not only in their original piano form but also in instrumental and orchestral arrangements.
Astor Piazzolla was a celebrated Argentine musician and composer of Italian descent. *The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires* consists of four tangos: "Autumn," "Winter," "Spring," and "Summer." This music has long since found its way to our audiences and been elevated to the ranks of those hits that people come to hear for the name alone. The distinctive quality of its rhythms and harmonies reflects the composer's sense of the passage of time. Piazzolla boldly combines Latin American and jazz motifs with the classical tradition.
Osvaldo Requena's *The Seasons* is a colourful work by an Argentine composer that transports the listener into a world where the characteristic rhythms of tango blend with depth of feeling and an boundless sense of love.
*The Seasons* by the contemporary Moscow composer Sergei Akhunov is perhaps the newest cycle on the subject — it was written in 2014. The work was inspired by Kim Ki-duk's film *Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring* — which is why the cycle has five movements: five seasons.
The contemporary British composer Max Richter, known for his film work (including collaborations with Martin Scorsese and Ridley Scott), presented his own version of *The Four Seasons* in 2012. Curiously, Vivaldi's musical material is preserved in it, yet it sounds entirely new — fused with the inflections of contemporary musical language. Who knows — perhaps the great representative of the Baroque would have written his masterpiece in precisely this way, were he alive among us today.
Performers
Divertissement Chamber Orchestra
Artistic Director and Soloist — Honoured Artist of Russia Ilya Ioff
PROGRAMME:
- Max Richter — "Winter" from "Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Recomposed";
- Osvaldo Requena — "Autumn" from "The Seasons";
- Sergei Akhunov — "Autumn" from "The Seasons";
- Astor Piazzolla — "Autumn" from "The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires";
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky — "October. Autumn Song" from "The Seasons";
- Osvaldo Requena — "Winter" from "The Seasons";
- Astor Piazzolla — "Winter" from "The Four Seasons";
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky — "December. Christmas Tide" from "The Seasons";
- Antonio Vivaldi — "Winter" from "The Four Seasons".
Concert duration — 1 hour 10 minutes without intermission
Venue: Ground floor of the exhibition space, Fabergé Museum
