The Four Seasons (Vivaldi)
The Four Seasons is a group of four violin concerti by Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi, each of which gives musical expression to a season of the year. These were composed around 1718–1720, when Vivaldi was the court chapel master in Mantua. They were published in 1725 in Amsterdam, together with eight additional concerti, as Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione.
Antonio Vivaldi (engraving by François Morellon de La Cave, from Michel-Charles Le Cène's edition of Vivaldi's Op. 8, 1725)
Title page of Vivaldi's Cimento dell'Armonia e dell'Invenzione, which included The Four Seasons
Bernardino Molinari, who made the first electrical recording of The Four Seasons in 1942.
A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin and instrumental ensemble. Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up through the present day. Many major composers have contributed to the violin concerto repertoire.
David Oistrakh playing a violin concerto, 1960