Autumn, with its golden leaves and misty mornings, is here. To keep you company as the nights draw in, we present some of the best classical music inspired by autumn in all its melancholy magic and colourful beauty.
Best classical music for autumn
Vivaldi: 'Autumn', from the The Four Seasons (1723)
What seasonal playlist could fail to include Vivaldi? From the Allegro’s post-harvest celebrations in 'Autumn', Vivaldi’s programmatic music transports us to the somewhat less vibrant morning after, where slow moving suspensions come as close to a musical hangover as anything you’ve ever heard. In the stately final Allegro, ‘The Hunt’, a virtuosic violin solo represents the hunter’s fleeing quarry, which they eventually catch and kill. Not so fun for the quarry, but a jolly old time for all the hunters.
Astor Piazzolla: 'Autumn', from The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires
From one Four Seasons to another. Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla is perhaps best known for his reinvention of the tango form, and it's heard at its best in The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, in which to Vivaldi's Baroque masterpiece is given a vibrant tango makeover. Unlike Vivaldi’s famous The Four Seasons, Piazzolla’s version reflects the urban atmosphere of Buenos Aires and the emotional intensity of the tango, rather than nature.
Piazzolla originally composed these four seasonal evocations for a cabaret band of violin, piano, electric guitar, double bass and bandoneon. This small-scale work was then reimagined as an orchestral suite. Of these, 'Autumn' has a somewhat melancholic and reflective tone as befits its depiction of the changing of the year.
Bax: November Woods (1917)
Though ostensibly inspired by nature, Arnold Bax’s dramatic tone poem November Woods also acts as a musical portrait of his turbulent love affair with pianist Harriet Cohen. An often unsettling work, November Woods fluctuates between stormy drama and quiet ecstasy, yet fades to a quiet and unresolved finish.
Fanny Mendelssohn: Das Jahr (1841)
Fanny Mendelssohn wrote the piano cycle Das Jahr as a musical diary of the year she spent with her family in Rome. The 12 months are represented by 12 individual movements. In 'September' a flowing accompaniment overlays a dark melody in the left hand. 'October' is a brighter, march-like song, but 'November' returns to introspection and a minor key. She instructs the performer to play sadly.
Here is the beautiful 'September: At the River':
More best classical music for autumn
Richard Strauss: ‘September’ from Four Last Songs
Sometimes considered Strauss’s own musical epitaph, all of the Four Last Songs are themed around death. ‘September’ is a shimmering and uplifting work, which calmly compares the passing of the seasons with the passing of life. Strauss also includes a poignant and wistful solo for his father’s instrument: the French horn.
Tchaikovsky: 'Autumn' from The Seasons
Tchaikovsky is best known for his symphonies (including the mighty, mournful Pathétique) and ballets (The Nutcracker, Swan Lake)... in short, for composing on a large scale. But he did write some beautiful smaller works too - chamber music gems such as the Piano Trio and the string quartet 'Souvenir de Florence'.
Then there's The Seasons, a set of 12 short piano pieces, each depicting, you've guessed it, a different month of the year. The work was originally commissioned by a Russian music magazine, who each month published the relevant piano miniature alongside poetic offerings from Russian writers. The Seasons may not be on the scale of the works mentioned above, yet it still captures Tchaikovsky’s prodigious lyrical gifts and ability to conjure vivid atmosphere through music.
Among the trio of autumnal sketches, September's 'The Hunt' has a vigorous rhythm, evoking the momentum and galloping excitement of a hunt. October gets 'Autumn Song', a reflective, somewhat melancholy movement that depicts the last vestiges of summer and the arrival of autumn. We're back in festive mood with November's 'Troika', which evokes the sound of sleigh bells through the snow (a soundworld also famously conjured by Prokofiev with the Troika from Lieutenant Kijé).
Imogen Holst: The Fall of the Leaf (1963)
The composer Imogen Holst wrote The Fall of the Leaf as a study piece for her friend, the cellist and pianist Pamela Hind O’Malley. It is based on a tune by Martin Peerson that Holst found in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (1572-1651). Unified by this melody, all six movements expand on it using a variety of different string techniques, from pizzicato to double-stopping.
Massenet: Pensée d’Automne (1887)
‘The year slips away like a flowing stream,’ mourns the soprano soloist in the opening lines of French composer Jules Massenet’s poignant art song Pensée d’Automne (Thoughts of Autumn). Based on a poem by Armand Silvestre, the song perfectly expresses the melancholy that comes as the summer ends.
Best classical music for autumn: Takemitsu's mountain retreat
Tōru Takemitsu: November Steps (1967)
One of Japan's most famous composers, Tōru Takemitsu (1930–1996) achieved a unique blend of traditional Japanese music with Western classical techniques, resulting in a deeply atmospheric, transcendent soundworld all his own. Among Western influences, the musical palettes of Debussy and Messiaen can both be heard in Takemitsu's distinctive sonic universe.
November Steps was a commissioned for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, to celebrate its 125th anniversary. You probably couldn't get further from New York, though, than the remote mountain retreat where Takemitsu composed the work. In characteristic Takemitsu mode, November Steps combines traditional Japanese instruments such as the shakuhachi and biwa with the sounds of the familiar Western orchestra.
Listen to our playlist of autumnal music here.