How Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” came to be ubiquitous

FROM ELEVATOR muzak and call-centre hold-music to TV and film soundtracks, “The Four Seasons” by Antonio Vivaldi supplies an inescapable backdrop to everyday life. Yet these ubiquitous earworms have a context and history, which began three centuries ago. The Venetian composer may have completed his quartet of violin concertos, part of a dozen-strong set entitled “The Contest Between Harmony and Invention”, in 1723, or perhaps a little earlier.

Printed in Amsterdam in 1725, the concertos met with 18th-century fame, then prolonged obscurity, before enjoying a resurgence of popularity in the 20th century. With familiarity came over-exposure, indifference, even undeserved contempt. For Adrian Chandler, a violinist and the founder-director of the Baroque ensemble—and Vivaldi specialists—La Serenissima, “it’s a crying shame that people don’t realise what a genius he was.”