Concerts with works by

Antonio Vivaldi

Guest performance

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons

The birdsong of Spring, the downpours of Summer, the frosts of Winter: everyone’s got their favourite bit of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. There’s still nothing to match the sensation of hearing these four evergreen concertos performed live, and tonight Baroque specialist Richard Egarr and the LPO’s own Alice Ivy-Pemberton bring their shared energy to music that never gets any less fresh. But first, as part of our ‘Moments Remembered’ season, there’s a sideways look at what makes a classic: the Vivaldi-inspired Requiem by African-American composer Julia Perry, and Evan Williams’s playful, provocative piece that discusses his own place in classical music as a young African-American composer.Tickets for Vivaldi’s Four Seasons includes access to After Dark: Bluegrass with Alice Ivy-Pemberton after the performance in the Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer. The After Dark performance is standing only.Please note venue.

NEW: Academy Concert

Violinist and conductor Bernhard Forck is a specialist for early music and conducts the DSO concert on January 8 with soprano Anna Prohaska. Together with the members of the DSO's Ferenc Fricsay Academy, he conducted a two-day workshop on historical performance practice in January. The result can be experienced on January 22 at the Alte Pfarrkirche Pankow.

Il Giardino Armonico / Antonini / Faust / Music by Antonio Vivaldi

Although today Antonio Vivaldi is best known for the Four Seasons, in the 18th century, the collection L'estro armonico became famous as one of the most influential instrumental pieces of music of the time. Published in 1711, the series of 12 concertos met with great acclaim, and the composer immediately became a significant figure on the international scene. The very accurate title also shows that the composer was aware of the momentous nature of the work. Undoubtedly, we are dealing with Vivaldi's brilliant vision. This is Vivaldi at his best: lively and brilliant, reaching for extended cantilenas, written with a wonderful sense of pure joy of music-making, spontaneity, a sense of mutual fun and ensemble play. When properly interpreted, the relentless and growing energy of these concertos is reminiscent of the morning sun wandering across a room – and this is precisely the kind of interpretation we can expect from Il Giardino Armonico and Isabelle Faust as soloist. Alexandra KozowiczConcert duration (intermission included): approximately 120 minutes

Arsilda, regina di Ponto: a vibrant Vivaldi opera

The Concertgebouw’s famous Main Hall is one of the best concert halls in the world, well-known for its exceptional acoustics and special atmosphere. In the Main Hall, you will feel history. Here, Gustav Mahler conducted his own compositions, as did Richard Strauss and Igor Stravinsky. Sergei Rachmaninoff played his own piano concertos in the Main Hall. This is also where musicians such as Leonard Bernstein, Vladimir Horowitz and Yehudi Menuhin gave legendary performances. Right up to now, the Main Hall offers a stage to the world’s best orchestras and musicians. Buy your tickets now and experience the magic of the Main Hall for yourself!

Il Sogno Veneziano

Carl-Philipp-Emanuel-Bach-Chor Hamburg / NDR Barock / Hansjörg Albrecht

Born the son of a violonist, Antonio Vivaldi received violin lessons at an early age. In 1703, at the age of 25, he became a music teacher at the »Ospedale della Pietà«, an orphanage for young girls. There he gave his pupils music lessons every day from an early age. As a result, most of the girls were able to play two or three instruments and were also familiar with solo singing. Vivaldi remained at the school until 1716, where he not only taught, but also composed concertos and oratorios for the weekly performances. The orchestra of the Ospedale soon gained a legendary reputation that extended beyond the country’s borders and attracted numerous travellers to Italy. »The most remarkable music here in Venice is that of the hospitals,« reported the French scholar Charles de Brosses in a letter dated August 1739. »There are four of them, all inhabited by illegitimate daughters or orphan girls, or those whom their parents are unable to bring up. They are brought up at the expense of the state, and are trained to excel in music. They sing like angels and play the violin, flute, organ, oboe, violoncello, in short, no instrument is so big that it would frighten them. They live in seclusion like nuns. About 40 of them take part in every concert. I assure you, there is nothing more attractive than the sight of a pretty young nun, in a white habit and with a bunch of pomegranates behind her ear, conducting an orchestra and beating time with the greatest grace and precision.« The eroticising effect of such women’s concerts can also be seen in the fact that a not inconsiderable number of male concertgoers use these events to look for a bride...

Biennale »Paradise lost?« “The Four Seasons” with the Freiburger Barockorchester

Simply... Philharmonic!3: Max Volbers, Kore Orchestra

Max Volbers, photo: Cezary Zych; Orkiestra Kore, photo: Grzesiek Mart The instrument inevitably associated with Antonio Vivaldi is the violin. This association is natural, since he played exclusively on string instruments and it was to the violin that he entrusted the solo part in the vast majority of his concertos. However, the catalogue of Vivaldi’s complete works also includes solo flute concertos, three of which are specified as being for flautino. It is impossible to be sure exactly which instrument the composer had in mind, but the compass of the Concerto in G major, RV 443 allows it to be performed on sopranino recorder. As with Vivaldi, the most important instrument for Georg Philipp Telemann was the violin. However, he also had experience of playing wind instruments. After the death of his father, he studied keyboard instruments with organist Benedikt Christiani and independently mastered the recorder, violin and zither. Vivaldi’s concertos were certainly familiar to Telemann, but in his 1718 autobiography the German composer indicated that he was not a great admirer of the concerto genre. Telemann’s reservations were probably not so much about the genre itself as about the exaggerated virtuosity. Johann Friedrich Fasch must also have become acquainted with these works during his time in Prague as court composer to Count Wenzel Morzin. Fasch had taught himself composition by studying the works of his friend Telemann, who for Fasch was the greatest master. Simply… Philharmonic! Project 3: Both historical eras and cultural centres are often associated with outstanding individuals who represent the art created in a given place and time. However, confining ourselves to the individual perspective often distorts the full picture of the artistic reality of the time. For Baroque Italy, such a point of reference is certainly Antonio Vivaldi. Although he was an outstanding violinist, he also wrote concertato works not intended for string instruments, as did another violinist, Georg Philipp Telemann, who today remains in the shadow of the great Baroque luminaries from Saxony – Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. Unlike Vivaldi, Telemann was a multi-instrumentalist, also experienced in playing wind and keyboard instruments. Francesco Landini can be considered a symbol of Florence, and also of the entire Italian output of the Trecento. He too delighted his contemporaries with his performance art, specialising in organ. The most outstanding composer of the Polish Republic of the first half of the fifteenth century known to us today was Nicolaus of Radom. Very little is known about his life, but he can certainly be associated with his activities in early Jagiellonian Cracow. Daniel Laskowski

Bremer Barockorchester

Together with the multi-award-winning soloist Alexis Cárdenas (violin) and the Grammy winners Miguel Siso (cuatro) and Celso Duarte (harp), the Bremen Baroque Orchestra presents the world-famous violin concertos The Four Seasons in the context of Latin American soundscapes.

Michael Spyres Il Pomo d'Oro "Tenore assoluto!"

Michael Spyres, an exceptional American tenor, has a vocal range of over three octaves. Praised for his spectacular high notes and rich middle and lower registers, Spyres challenges the historical dominance of castrati. His performance in Essen will showcase his versatility across French and Italian Baroque repertoire, accompanied by period-instrument ensemble Il Pomo d'Oro.

Tschechische Kammerphilharmonie Prag / Martin Kos / Petr Chromčák

Trilling and chirping birds in spring, buzzing and humming bees just before a furious thunderstorm in summer, grape harvest in autumn, biting cold and falling snowflakes in winter – no artistic work describes the four seasons better than Antonio Vivaldi’s cycle of the same name. The Tschechische Kammerphilharmonie Prag will be performing it as well as Handel’s »Water Music« and Haydn’s »Farewell Symphony« in the Grand Hall of the Laeiszhalle.

Antonio Vivaldi: Die vier Jahreszeiten

Chamber Orchestra of the New Philharmonic Hamburg

Kindertag: FamilienKonzert mit dem Konzerthausorchester

Music is like time, sometimes fast, sometimes slow. Its tempo can be steady like a heartbeat or expansive like the universe. In this concert, we journey through the vastness of space, across seasons and time, until we arrive in the present moment.

Guest performance

Guest performance

Andrea Marcon · BRSO hip

“Historically informed performance” can sound unwieldy. This is why there is a catchier colloquial abbreviation: “HIP,” which denotes something that is “modern,” or even “trendy.” According to BRSO Chief Conductor Sir Simon Rattle, his beloved baroque music, played on period instruments, is “trending” (another colloquial verb), and he wants to add it to the orchestra’s repertory and profile. Andrea Marcon, at the invitation of Sir Simon, will conduct this season’s second HIP matinee. As a deliberate contrast to the first matinee that featured Bach cantatas, the second matinee will focus primarily on the Italian Baroque, including Vivaldi’s well-known Four Seasons. Francesco Maria Veracini’s compositions are likely to be new to some listeners – and perhaps they will even be HIP by the end of the concert.

Original sound: Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante

A journey through the diversity of European baroque music: the Europa Galante ensemble on an exciting journey with its programme Europe on the move. The members of the ensemble, founded and led by Fabio Biondi, see themselves as cosmopolitans with Italian roots. “With our Italianità, we show that we live in a Europe that is, fortunately, both united and full of differences,” says Biondi. Europa Galante has played its way to the forefront of the early music scene with its passionate, lively music-making, and has rescued many musical treasures from oblivion.

in bloom

Tango Fenesta

Guest performance

Pleistozän

The Arctic is an alien habitat, a magnet for travellers, researchers and adventurers. And in the meantime, the continent has become a symbol of climate change. In the innovative scientific concert entitled »Pleistozän« (Pleistocene – the name of the last great ice age), geographer Dr André Baumeister takes the audience on a great journey through time illustrating the development of this unique habitat. He shows pictures and films, reports on his journeys along the Norwegian coast to the upper Arctic, Spitsbergen and the east coast of Greenland – and brings the beauty and fragility of the Arctic to life. An orchestra plays works to accompany the film, including music by Australian composer Nigel Westlake, who himself ventured onto the eternal ice with his »Antarctica Suite« of 1991.

NDR Barock / Dorothee Oberlinger / Hansjörg Albrecht

With Dorothee Oberlinger, the International Bach Festival Hamburg has invited a real shooting star for early music. The recorder player and conductor is one of today’s leading international figures in the field of early music and has been honoured with numerous national and international music awards. She is coming to the International Bachfest Hamburg 2025 with very different works in her luggage.

Vivaldi meets Piazzolla

Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" enjoys immense popularity, portraying nature's events and moods through vivid musical language. Composed 300 years ago, the context has shifted, particularly with climate change. Astor Piazzolla's "Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas" focuses on human life in Buenos Aires. The Hamburg Stage Ensemble, a group of young musicians, aims to connect with audiences through intimate performances without a conductor.

Guest performance

Maestro Jules Kingsday Concert: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons revealed (Dutch spoken)

The Concertgebouw’s famous Main Hall is one of the best concert halls in the world, well-known for its exceptional acoustics and special atmosphere. In the Main Hall, you will feel history. Here, Gustav Mahler conducted his own compositions, as did Richard Strauss and Igor Stravinsky. Sergei Rachmaninoff played his own piano concertos in the Main Hall. This is also where musicians such as Leonard Bernstein, Vladimir Horowitz and Yehudi Menuhin gave legendary performances. Right up to now, the Main Hall offers a stage to the world’s best orchestras and musicians. Buy your tickets now and experience the magic of the Main Hall for yourself!

Guest performance Classics

Vivaldi: Die Vier Jahreszeiten

So much can be captured: what is known as early music (literally, »old music« in German) has long since no longer only been in the hands of the old guard, who did important pioneering work. More and more young artists, trained in specialised degree programmes, are flocking onto the stages of this world to revive the music of the past few centuries in fresh interpretations. One of the current stars on this scene is French baroque violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte, who – following his performance in the Elbphilharmonie »Fast Lane« series – you can now experience with his own ensemble Le Consort. On the programme is one work that needs no introduction: Antonio Vivaldi’s »Four Seasons«. The collection of four violin concertos portraying the seasons is one of the earliest and most famous examples of programme music – and surely one of the most popular works of all in the history of music. De Swarte now skilfully combines it in his programme with other concertos and overtures by Vivaldi and his contemporaries – and so makes the seasons appear in a new guise.

Guest performance

Vivaldi's Four Seasons

The Concertgebouw’s famous Main Hall is one of the best concert halls in the world, well-known for its exceptional acoustics and special atmosphere. In the Main Hall, you will feel history. Here, Gustav Mahler conducted his own compositions, as did Richard Strauss and Igor Stravinsky. Sergei Rachmaninoff played his own piano concertos in the Main Hall. This is also where musicians such as Leonard Bernstein, Vladimir Horowitz and Yehudi Menuhin gave legendary performances. Right up to now, the Main Hall offers a stage to the world’s best orchestras and musicians. Buy your tickets now and experience the magic of the Main Hall for yourself!