Forma Antiqva - Antonio Vivaldi: Les Quatre Saisons (2012) [HDTracks]

A wonderful audiofilm (cinema for closed eyes). An outstanding musical radio play. A musical homage to the world and the wonder of life — who besides Stefan Winter would dare to set Antonio Vivaldi's sonnets to music for the very first time, to open with these four new songs the master piece "Le Quattro Stagioni". Since years Stefan Winter works as a sound artist, recording director and producer and he is known for ambitious and bold projects, now he surprises once again his audience with a creative new version of Antonio Vivaldi's »The Four Seasons«.
The Spanish baroque ensemble Forma Antiqva under the musical direction of Aarón Zapico featuring the violinist Aitor Hevia create together with Theo Bleckmann and Uri Caine, and the visual artist Marcel van Eeden, a synthesis of the arts of this Baroque masterpiece.
Vivaldi's sonnets are the starting point. These poems seem to be almost irrelevant short stories about sequences of events which happen during the seasons of the year. Vivaldi composes a baroque audio-film (cinema for closed eyes) about these sonnets and creates one of the most beautiful declarations of love for man and nature. His work of musical art tells a story about birds in springtime, rushing streams, dancing nymphs and shepherds, about searing heat in the summertime with dreadful and devastating hail storms, dance festivals with drunken farmers in the fall and brutal hunting until the very end, about the iciness in wintertime, a warm place in front of a cosy chimney fire and the warlike stormy northerly winds which blow across the land. Theo Bleckmann and Uri Caine set to music for the very first time Vivaldi's poems in a translation adapted into modern English by Timothy Kotowich. Bleckmann sings, is using electronic effects, works with samples and loops. Caine plays piano, keyboards and creates sound waves and rhythm patterns. Each song is made out of different elements. Wonderful piano parts can be heard for springtime, the summer is full of electronic sound cascades, the fall brings dance rhythms and the winter ice cold sounds. Bleckmann and Caine compose a "recitative" for »The Four Seasons« and freely interpret Vivaldi's text. The poems and also parts of the harmonic structure were very likely penned by Vivaldi himself. ....