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Mandolinist Avi Avital brings traditional gondolier songs and Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons to Benaroya Hall, streaming January 13 at 7:30pm on Seattle Symphony Live.

Antonio Vivaldi
The Four Seasons
Born: March 4, 1678, in Venice, Italy
Died: July 28, 1741 in Vienna, Austria
Works Composed: 1716-1725

The tradition of Venetian gondolier songs began in the 18th century by gondoliers, after listening to popular arias in theaters around the city, would attempt to imitate the professional singers as they rowed on the water. These songs are often very simple in their melodic and harmonic structure, with poetic text in Venetian dialect. There are no composers attached to these songs — they are part of the cultural heritage of Venice, their survival reliant on being passed down through the generations. Accompanied by the folkloric mandolin, these songs transport the listener to the soundscapes of Venetian life during the time when Antonio Vivaldi himself strolled across the canals. Audiences who first heard The Four Seasons in concert would walk outside and surely hear the strains of the gondoliers on their way home. By bringing the folk-like qualities of the mandolin to Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and aligning these concertos with popular tunes from the period, Avi Avital unites and honors the rich artistic legacy of Venice in the early 1700s.

Avital brings a fresh vibrancy to Vivaldi’s music with his brilliant mandolin playing. Originating in Italy, the mandolin has the same strings and tuning of a violin, lending itself perfectly to the intricate and energetic qualities of the original solo violin part of The Four Seasons. Born in Israel, Avital began learning the mandolin at age 8 and quickly excelled, becoming the first mandolin soloist to be nominated for a classical Grammy. Along with his invigorating transcriptions of works by J.S. Bach and Vivaldi, Avital has singlehandedly transformed the mandolin repertoire with more than 100 contemporary compositions written for him.

Antonio Vivaldi was a prolific composer and virtuoso violinist who composed over 800 works in his lifetime, including 500 concertos. Although he enjoyed much fame throughout Europe and greatly influenced many of his contemporaries, most notably J.S. Bach, Vivaldi died a pauper and his music was forgotten for more than 200 years. A rediscovery of his scores in the 1950s led to a resurgence of performances that has continued unabated to this day. Concurrent to this revival was the development of recording technology and the invention of the LP record, which brought The Four Seasons to even more listeners and cemented the incomparable popularity of these beloved concertos.

Originally composed for solo violin with orchestra, The Four Seasons has been adapted and remixed perhaps more than any other piece of classical music. Shortly after its premiere, the concertos were arranged for hurdy-gurdy in France; later, adaptations were recorded by the Swingle Singers, a koto ensemble, and jazz and electronic artists, to name a few. Whether these may be regarded as frivolous or wonderfully imaginative, the truth remains that countless musicians continue to mine this work for all its riches and poetic beauty. Amidst all this, Avital stands apart, offering a new perspective by bringing the traditional Venetian mandolin of Vivaldi’s time to The Four Seasons and pairing it alongside the folk tunes of baroque Venice that Vivaldi would have heard while wandering through his city.

In addition to his hundreds of concertos for solo instruments, Vivaldi also took part in a baroque Venetian practice of writing concertos for string orchestras. The Concerto in G minor, RV 156 that opens the Seattle Symphony concert with Avital is a splendid example of this genre. In typical form of two fast outer movements surrounding a short Andante movement, this concerto begins with two violin lines playing against each other in lyrical counterpoint over a descending bass line. A short series of suspensions over a moving bass line make up the lilting second movement before returning to more energetic flourishes throughout the entire ensemble to close out the work.

Part of the curiosity at the time of The Four Seasons premiere was the programmatic nature of Vivaldi’s writing. Inspired by four sonnets — which may have been written by Vivaldi himself — he composed music that reflected the poetry and represented specific aspects of the text. This programmatic approach to composition would become popular in the Romantic period beginning with Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony, which had musical representations of thunderstorms and babbling brooks, but in 18th-century Venice this concept was groundbreaking and controversial.

La primavera (“Spring”) opens with a bright sense of happiness for a season that brings light and rebirth. Enchanting birdsongs are heard in the solo part and accompanying violins, while a murmuring stream drifts by in the ensemble. Following the lines from the sonnet, the slow movement depicts a sleeping goatherd in the fields, while his dog watches over him, gently barking a “woof-woof” in the violas. The finale features the sounds of a rustic bagpipe while, as the accompanying sonnet states, “nymphs and shepherds lightly dance beneath the brilliant canopy of spring.”

L’estate (“Summer”) begins in intense heat, with a slow-moving, halting melody. The soloist enters with virtuosic passages that imitate the songs of the cuckoo, turtledove and goldfinch. Rumbles of a distant thunderstorm threaten the stillness. Again, the slow movement depicts slumber, this time of a peasant who restlessly dreams of the coming storm that may damage his crops. The storm arrives in the third movement with thrilling runs for the entire ensemble that lead to a frenzy of sound.

The harvest season of L’autunno (“Autumn”) begins with a celebratory peasant dance to welcome the bounty. Here, the soloist acts as the guest who has had his fair share of wine and entertains the gathering with his flair and antics. This is followed by a drunken sleep of revelers — the strings barely move in their sustained chords while the harpsichord gently steps around them. The final movement places the scene in a more formal and aristocratic hunt, reflected in the stately opening phrases. The soloist plays the part of the stag, running for its life in lively spurts of virtuosity only to die, with its last breath turning to a minor key before the movement concludes.

The onset of L’inverno (“Winter”) is chilling, with the ensemble literally chattering in dissonance in a brilliant evocation of the bitter cold of the season. Vivaldi’s genius shines throughout this movement as the icy winds and bone-chilling temperatures come across clearly in the searing musical lines. The second movement brings the warmth of an indoor fire and an exquisite solo melody while the raindrops, imitated by the plucked violins, gently fall outside. The sonnet portion that accompanies the final movement describes people walking slowly on an icy path then speeding up as their slips and falls become more frequent during their trek across the cracking ice. The sonnet concludes: “This is winter, which nonetheless brings its own delights.”

The songs that precede each concerto reflect, in some ways, the different themes of each season. In “Cara la mia Ninetta,” which precedes Spring, the singer implores his darling Ninetta to let him tend to her garden, since he is a gardener and knows his work well. “In fin che’l tempo è bello,” or, “As long as the weather is beautiful,” comes before Summer. The aria by Vivaldi, “Alma oppressa da sorte crudele,” which is heard before Autumn, speaks of a soul oppressed by cruel fate and hoping to placate the pain with love, only to find that love is another kind of pain. This is from an opera called La fida ninfa, or “The Faithful Nymph”, which was written to commemorate the opening of Verona’s Teatro Filarmonico during carnival season. The simplicity and clarity of structure within this aria combine with virtuosic vocal expressiveness to create a stunning dramatic effect, setting the tone for the autumnal season. The gondolier songs offer a lighter, more humorous contrast to Vivaldi’s more serious aria. Although the texts are mostly in Venetian dialect, the jaunty and sweet characteristics of each song are readily apparent in the music itself, effortlessly communicating the essence of 18th-century Venetian culture in all of its beauty.