And it wasn’t just the concert-going folk of northern Italy who experienced Vivaldi’s stylistic shot-in-the-arm. They might not have provoked a riot but, when Vivaldi’s Four Seasons were first heard in the early 1720s, their audience hadn’t heard anything quite like them before.

Like those other seismic cultural milestones, Vivaldi’s most popular concertos also changed the course of musical history. Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Beethoven’s Fifth… and yes, Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. The Four Seasons: A Guide To Vivaldi’s Radical Violin Concertos Listen to our recommended recording of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons performed by Janine Jansen now. Our guide to Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons analyses the secret of the concertos’ runaway success and explains why this now-familiar music was so radical for its time. The four violin concertos broke new ground with their programmatic depiction of the changing seasons and their technical innovations.

Vivaldi’s best-known work The Four Seasons, a set of four violin concertos composed in 1723, are the world’s most popular and recognized pieces of Baroque music. He introduced a range of new styles and techniques to string playing and consolidated one of its most important genres, the concerto. Antonio Vivaldi’s influence on the development of Baroque music was immense.

Vivaldi four seasons spring