Concert Band
Largo from ‘Winter’
by Antonio Vivaldi
Grade 2 | 4 Mins
Born in Venice on March 4th, 1678, Vivaldi was employed for most of his working life by the Ospedale della Pietà. Often termed an orphanage, the Ospedale was in fact a home for the illegitimate female offspring of noblemen and was thus well endowed by the anonymous fathers. Most of Vivaldi's concerti were intended for performance by his many talented pupils there. In fact, his conditions of employment stated that if he managed to write two concerti a month, it meant his presence on a daily basis was not required, so he was able to combine this post with that of director of the Teatro Sant' Angelo.
Published in Amsterdam in 1725, his opus 8, Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'invenzione (The trial of harmony and invention), consisted of twelve concerti, seven of which were descriptive: The Four Seasons, Storm at Sea, Pleasure and The Hunt. The Four Seasons is by far the most popular of these and was accompanied by specially writtensonnets (by Vivaldi, it is believed) that point to the various images described by the music.
The second movement of Winter has the following line appended:
To rest contentedly beside the hearth, while those outside are drenched by pouring rain.
Vivaldi uses pizzicato violins to represent the rain (slightly gentile to afford a drenching, it must be said!) over which the solo violin weaves one of his most beautiful melodies.