Read on to discover the best music inspired by the seasons – beyond Vivaldi's great The Four Seasons...
Best music inspired by the seasons... Christoper Simpson's The Four Seasons
Vivaldi was not the first composer to portray the seasons in music. Dating from nearly a century earlier is The Four Seasons for three viols and continuo by the Yorkshireman Christopher Simpson. Running from Winter to Autumn and each consisting of a fan, an ayre and a galliard, Simpson’s seasons aren’t as graphically characterised as in later works, but are nonetheless atmospheric in their own way.
Haydn's The Seasons... plus Spohr and Raff
Moving on to the turn of the 19th century, we have Haydn’s The Seasons. Along with a storm, hunting scene and women at their spinning wheels, this famous oratorio features a rowdy drinking song – something you will also hear in the final movement of Spohr’s Ninth Symphony ‘The Seasons’ (1849), which quotes the popular Rheinweinlied.
While Spohr fitted all four seasons into one work, Raff devoted a symphony to each one in his ‘Four Seasons’ Symphonies Nos 8-11 of 1876-79.
Best music inspired by the seasons... Tchaikovsky's The Seasons
Also dating from 1876 is Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons for solo piano. ‘The Months’ might have been a more apt title here, as the work consists of 12 pieces running from January to December, each intended originally to appear separately in editions of a monthly magazine.
His fellow Russian Glazunov, however, follows the familiar winter-to-autumn trajectory for his 1899 ballet The Seasons, which again includes a hearty autumn drinking session.
Best music inspired by the seasons... John Cage's The Seasons
The bar is firmly closed in John Cage’s 1947 ballet The Seasons, which instead concentrates on the abstract character of each part of the year.
And finally... Thea Musgrave, Piazzolla and Roxanna Panufnik
Thea Musgrave’s 1988 The Seasons for chamber orchestra was inspired by pictures at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, and for a tango twist, there’s Astor Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, written in the 1960s for his group of violin/viola, electric guitar, piano, double bass and bandoneon.
And, finally, Roxanna Panufnik’s 2012 Four World Seasons for solo violin and string orchestra takes us on a year-round journey through Albania, Tibet, Japan and India.
