Antonio Vivaldi

1. Spring: Allegro
2. Spring: Largo e pianissimo sempre
3. Spring: Allegro (Danza pastorale)
4. Summer: Allegro non molto; Allegro
5. Summer: Adagio Presto
6. Summer: Presto-Tempo impetuoso d'estate
7. Autumn: Allegro
8. Autumn: Adagio molto
9. Autumn: Allegro
10. Winter: Allegro non molto
11. Winter: Largo
12. Winter: Allegro non molto

João Carlos Martins &
Fernando Corvisier / The Four Seasons

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digital
LAB 7018

 

João Carlos Martins is joined on this recording by Fernando Corvisier for a two-piano romp through Vivaldi’s Four Seasons that should make even the most jaded listener whose heard the Four Seasons one too many times perk up. Transcribed by Messiaen–pupil Almeida Prado, this version of the red monk’s celebration of weather changes sounds more like a rediscovered two-piano sonata by Rachmaninoff than the Baroque muzak it too often can appear to be. By removing the expected sound world of the 18th century, the work attains a new kind of timeliness and can be appreciated in a new way. If authenticists are nauseated by this seemingly-blatant defiance of historic validity, it should be remembered that one of the great keyboard transcribers of Vivaldi’s concertos was Johann Sebastian Bach.

 

REVIEWS

“The most macho interpretation of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons you are ever likely to hear comes from the four fists of pianists João Carlos Martins and Fernando Corvisier (LABOR LAB 7018). Martins’s hydraulic fingers pound out the bass lines in double octaves; both pianists take turns with the violin solo parts, outdoing one another with flair. It’s a delightful romp for two pianists who are obviously having a great time on their dueling Steinways. I wouldn’t recommend it as an introduction to Vivaldi, but
it will surely shine a bright light on an old favorite.”
– ON THE AIR MAGAZINE

A New Spring for ‘The Four Seasons’
“…One striking transcription that makes old music sound new is Brazilian composer Almeida Prado’s arrangement of Vivaldi’s thoroughly familiar “The Four Seasons” for two pianos. If ever music seemed wedded to the sound of a solo violin and string orchestra, this is it. But it is reborn in a performance by pianists João Carlos Martins and Fernando Corvisier (Labor LAB7018) that totally changes the sound while remaining faithful to the ingenious, descriptive spirit of the early-1700s original and bringing out many small details often lost in orchestral performances.”
Joseph McLellan, The Washington Post

The Prado/Martins/Corvisier Four Seasons is not jazz or even “jazzy” but, like certain kinds of jazz, it has a way of taking traditional musical patterns and reinterpreting them for a latter day. There is something going on here which is Vivaldi and something else which is Vivaldi squared, Vivaldi cubed, Vivaldi taken up through two-and-a-half centuries right into the latter part of our own era – post-modern Vivaldi!”
– from Eric Salzman’s program notes