Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741)
The Four Seasons (arr. for piano)
Recasting Vivaldi for the piano
In addition to being a renowned composer, Antonio
Vivaldi was known throughout Europe as a violin
virtuoso, and to a lesser extent as a lutenist and
mandolinist. Despite writing music for a large
assortment of instruments, music for the keyboard is
conspicuously absent from his output.
Though Vivaldi may have neglected to write music
for the keyboard, keyboardists throughout history have
not neglected him. The young Johann Sebastian Bach
made an intensive study of the music of Vivaldi, and
transcribed a group of the violin concertos for the
keyboard. These studies informed and shaped Bach’s
conception of the Baroque concerto, and later bore fruit
in many of his mature works. More expediently, they
provided him with some sparkling music with which to
display his harpsichord virtuosity.
In undertaking to arrange the music of Vivaldi for
piano, not the least of the considerations facing the
prospective arranger is that, because he wrote no
keyboard music, there cannot be said to be a Vivaldi
keyboard style, as there is with Bach, Scarlatti or
Handel. While in many instances, the virtuoso solo
passages of the original translate just as dazzlingly to the
piano, there are numerous others where a literal
transcription would fall flat, and still others that are
virtually crying out for the increased resources of the
piano. How then do we create something resembling an
“authentic” Vivaldi keyboard style? To some extent,
Bach’s arrangements, with their violin passage-work
translated into the terms of the keyboard, and their
occasionally thickened contrapuntal textures, point the
way (or at least point a way.)
In recasting Vivaldi’s music for the modern piano,
should all the tonal resources of the instrument,
including its sustaining pedal, be used, or should the
tonal palette be limited to that of a harpsichord?
Considering that the original solo instruments in the
pieces that I arranged are lute and mandolin, both of
which parallel the piano in featuring strings that can
either be left vibrating sympathetically or dampened, it
would seem perfectly appropriate to use the pedal. As
for the orchestral parts, the resonance of the tutti
sections is best approximated with a judicious use of
pedal. Of course, this being an arrangement, there are
also instances where the use of pedal is needed merely
for linkage of notes impossible to join with use of the
fingers alone.
As for the range of pitch used, we should keep in
mind that the harpsichord—to say nothing of the organ—contained octave-doubling stops. Therefore, it would
seem stylistically appropriate to use some octave-doubling
on the piano in like manner. Then there is the
issue of ornamentation, particularly in the slow
movements. There is no question that ornamentation
was an essential feature of Baroque music, but should
the type of ornamentation used be limited to that
idiomatic of the original solo instruments, or is a
pianistic type of figuration more appropriate? As the
goal is to make these pieces sound as though they were
written for the keyboard, it would make sense to use
ornamentation befitting it.
Ultimately, although I aimed to keep the
arrangements of these pieces in an idiomatically
Baroque style, it was even more important to me that the
finished product be music that is alive and interesting. It
is easy enough to create a literal but lifeless
transcription, but as Liszt once noted, “in matters of
translation there are some exactitudes that are the
equivalent of infidelities”.
Andrew Gentile
Having performed The Four Seasons in concert with a
string quartet playing their respective parts, the piano
assumes the rôle of soloist. In this transcription I use the
piano solo transcription published by Ricordi, which
lends no mention as to the transcriber. Having this
edition as a base for further embellishment, in addition
to several recordings of the composition featuring either
violin or flute as the solo part, I further add to this
transcription Baroque-inspired ornamentation, scale
patterns and gentle broadening of textures.
This recording is dedicated to Hanna Saxon, former
President of the South Florida Chapter of the Chopin
Foundation of the United States. A pianist herself, she
was also Co-President along with Leonard Bernstein for
the Dmitri Mitropoulos Music Competitions. The South
Florida Chapter of the Chopin Foundation of the United
States graciously sponsored this recording in her
memory.
Jeffrey Biegel