Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | English | The Four Seasons (Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione), Op.8 no. 1-4

Théotime Langlois de Swarte and Le Consort’s Four Seasons reimagines Vivaldi’s iconic work as a dramatic journey, blending vocal expression and instrumental mastery. 

Two works by African American composers accompanied this 18th century music, now globally the most famous we have, which virtually disappeared until the middle of the last century.

Has St Martin-in-the-Fields ever heard a more polished performance of that Baroque evergreen, The Four Seasons?

Two concerts at Milton Court intersperse The Four Seasons with concertos from L'estro armonico and sacred cantatas featuring countertenor John Holiday.

The idea of reframing a warhorse of the classical repertory isn't a bad one. Theatre and opera goers have their modern-dress versions of Shakespeare and Mozart. Why not try it with Vivaldi?

Stunningly fresh performances of ubiqitous classics from Joshua Bell and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

Glazunov's The Seasons is a beautifully wrought and iridescent score, a jewel, a decorative Fabergé-like work of art, stuffed with melodic bonbons. 

Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons is used a reference in Anna Meredith’s Anno, an immersive performance by the Scottish Ensemble with surround visuals by illustrator Eleanor Meredith.

Young Russian violinist Yury Revich gets a rapturous response from Leipzigers.

La Serenissima bring a fresh interpretation to a seasoned classic in Cambridge.

The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra perform "Vivaldi unwired", including Max Richter's re-composition of The Four Seasons.

Fresh from their performance at Carnegie Hall, Anne-Sophie Mutter and her Mutter Virtuosi arrived in Toronto, playing Roy Thompson Hall to a loud, appreciative crowd.

The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra surprises by breaking conventions in their 2014 Kennismakingsconcert ('meeting concert'), combining Vivaldi's and Piazzolla's Four Seasons.

How does one approach performing a piece as ubiquitous and overexposed as Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (particularly here in New Zealand, where various movements have haunted us through the National Bank television advertisements for years now)? The Auckland Chamber Orchestra, with musical director Peter Scholes, decided in this case to recast Vivaldi’s concertos as works for wind and orchestra with Sch

Can it really be nearly 25 years since Nigel Kennedy’s landmark first recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons? 1989: when Baroque music adopted commercial pop’s mass marketing techniques, selling over two million copies (with a place in the Guinness Book of Records for all-time best-selling classical work) and making the young chap with lightning fingers and sticking-up hair a media sensation.

When I heard one of the main concerts of the Nordland Music Festival was going to be the Tromsø Chamber Orchestra playing Vivaldi’s violin concerto cycle The Four Seasons with Henning Kraggerud as soloist, I must admit I was rather disappointed.

It has been a few years since the Academy of Ancient Music pioneered the programme The Four Seasons: Nature’s Voice and Verse. Its debut at Hong Kong City Hall on Sunday was the start of a China tour covering Shanghai, Beijing and Tianjin.

Eight seasons were performed at St George’s Bristol by the Oxford Philomusica: in this different approach to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, they added Ástor Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. The concept behind the concert was to combine old and new worlds of classical music, comparing works from the 18th and 20th centuries based on similar structures, and four sonnets depicting the seasons.

As their contribution to The Sage Gateshead’s weekend-long “Fiddles on Fire” festival, Northern Sinfonia presented a selection of solo violin and string music that artfully blurred the distinctions between musical periods and genres, putting the emphasis firmly on the instrument itself, and on the spirited playing of their leader, Bradley Creswick.

On the morning of 12 February, President Obama announced the return of 34,000 troops from Afghanistan by January, 2014. This pronouncement made the concert at Carnegie Hall that night especially poignant.

According to the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, “Not all orchestras are the same”. I’m not sure who doubts this rather obvious statement; but I’m certain I’m not alone in thinking the OAE to be a unique ensemble, and not just for the eccentricity of its name.

The Royal Hospital Chelsea was founded in 1682 by Charles II to provide soldiers with a rewarding retirement location, and the grounds and buildings are all fitting for the residency of the Chelsea Pensioners. Their concert season ranges from choral music for Remembrance to string quartets and piano trios, but tonight’s performance saw string orchestra classics from the London Serenata.

Eurpoa Galante, directed by violinist Fabio Biondi, performed a program of baroque concerti at the McCarter Theatre on a world tour that includes stops at some highly prestigious venues.Ever since Biondi formed his ensemble in 1990, he has been known for performing imaginative renditions of baroque favorites.

A brave choice of programme this Wednesday matched the personality of the leather-clad Nigel Kennedy. This included a new self-penned composition, The Four Elements and a unique interpretation – drastically different from Kennedy’s interpretation in the late eighties – of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.

Last week’s Birmingham disaster exposed the difficulty Nigel Kennedy has created for himself. He appeared on stage half an hour late, to jeers and slow-clapping from his audience. Rock musicians frequently make late appearances – Hendrix once played a day and a half late at Woodstock – but classical musicians begin promptly.