Music for the weather

The Four Seasons; Antonio Vivaldi, composer; Orpheus Chamber Orchestra; Gil Shaham; violin

In the early August of 1982, I came into the house late one hot afternoon thoroughly exhausted having spent the day out in the hayfield with Dad and Uncle M. After preparing a tall glass of lemonade, I made my way for the fan and the TV. CBS and NBC were showing reruns; nothing interesting there. I switched to PBS. There stood a tiny many playing the flute. And he was playing … what was he playing? I’d heard that before, but where? The radio? No, I had heard it much more frequently than on the radio. Probably on a commercial or something. A commercial! That’s where I’d heard it. “There will be no wine … before its time.” Orson Wells. Paul Masson. He was playing the Paul Masson wine commercial music.

“Live From Lincoln Center presents James Galway opening the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York City with Antonio Vivaldi’s ‘The Four Seasons’. Tonight on Live From Lincoln Center,” came the announcement. And the local announcer chimed right in after him, “Starting at eight o’clock on your South Dakota Public Broadcasting stations.”

All right! That’s two hours from now. I’ve got time for a shower and a nap. Mom, we’re watching Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” on TV tonight. What’s for supper? “What would you like?” Let’s have hotdogs!

A good day’s work, a shower, a short nap, hotdogs and potato salad – and a masterwork from the Baroque Era. It just doesn’t get any better than this. Dad brought his plate of food into the living room. “Okay. What are we watching?” Well, best that I can see, there’s a faun on stage playing the flute. “Well, looky there. It’s James Galway.” Who’s he? “You’re looking at him.” How do you know him? “Johnny Carson has had him as a guest on the ‘Tonight Show’ four or five times. He’s a little, Irish, flute-playing leprechaun.”

It wasn’t until later that evening when I looked Vivaldi up in the encyclopedia that I found out that Mr. Vivaldi had written “The Four Seasons” for violin, not the flute. Oh, great. The first time I hear a masterpiece by a Baroque composer and it’s a mutant version.

“The Four Seasons” is arguably the finest example of “programme music” from the Baroque Era. In “programme music”, the music itself presents and describes a scene, person or event without the use of text or narration. Most Baroque Period music doesn’t represent anything but the artistry of the composer. But Vivaldi has opted in this set of violin concertos to paint not one picture, but four striking portraits of … the weather.

With a recording of this spectacular work, the great violinist, Gil Shaham, made an impact on weather enthusiasts everywhere by advertising his CD on the Weather Channel; and by featuring a short video of him playing the winter portion of the piece mixed with MTVesque scenes with ice and snow.

I bought this CD on the same day that my sister K. bought a computer on a cold day in December of 1995. Deutsche Grammophon had included the video of Mr. Shaham as a bonus on the CD, but you could only see it on a computer. So, we hurried home from Sioux Falls with a computer and a CD in the ice, snow and cold so that we could see a video of Gil Shaham playing “Winter” from “The Four Seasons” in the ice, snow and cold.

Credits: To James Galway, for bringing fun and humor to classical music. Thank you.

99 days and then I start my top 45 count down! Stay tuned!