Don’t be fooled. Tonight’s show is a setup. You are not sitting in the cloister of a Mallorcan convent. In fact, when you start listening to the music with half-closed eyes, you will notice that you have been invited to a Venetian palace. You are sitting amid Venetian nobles, merchants, visitors and friends of the household. The Lord wants to show his palace’s greatness and invited you today. He also invited two of the region’s most renowned musicians: Giovanni Legrenzi and Antonio Vivaldi.

They have both always surrounded themselves with the best performers. They know their music excels in skilled and trained hands, so they have decided to show an assorted bouquet of their compositions this evening. Mr. Legrenzi (1626 – 1690) studied in Bergamo and Venice but worked in Ferrara and Paris. Despite being the artist of the San Marco chapel in Venice, he wants to open the concert with a delicious aria today. And so, this adaptation of the aria Occhi miei si dormire from the opera La divisone del Mondo (1675) will show you how the imitative counterpoint of the Renaissance has been left behind, and little by little, the subtlety created by harmonic movements generative of tensions and resolutions opens the box of your emotions, meeting no resistance.

The other guest, maestro Antonio Vivaldi (1648 – 1741), is a melody conjurer endowed with unstoppable energy, and so, the RV 168 Symphony in B minor opens like an overflowing torrent of sound. It is noteworthy, here, that this piece is “designed” for the whole ensemble, with no soloist standing out—quite unlike the pieces that follow.

You will definitely acknowledge the fascinating melodies of the concerts called The Four Seasons. Based on four sonnets apparently written by the composer himself, they describe the scenes each concert will illustrate with music. What may not be as well known is that these are the first four in a group of twelve concerts known as ll cimento dell’armonia e dell’inventione, published in 1725. Its title discloses what Vivaldi wants to show in this collection: the foundations of a beautiful and well-crafted harmony and, at the same time, a language open to imagination and fantasy.

Throughout The Four Seasons, one can hear autumn’s birds, streams, storms, dances and gracefulness, as well as winter’s shivering cold. This music draws up descriptions over the ensemble members’ interplay, either all playing at the same time (tutti), with fewer instruments’ sonority (concertante) or playing solo, which is sometimes performed by two instruments almost in dialogue, as in the Spring‘s first movement. One of the elements used by Vivaldi in these concerts is the aforementioned ritornello form. This structure presents a repeated section (refrain), which allows these solo sections or soloists to be embedded right in the middle. The alternation of fast/slow movements is always present.

All these approaches to sound liaison can also be noticed in the superb Violin in D minor RV 813 Concert. Six earlier produced movements (c.1705 – 1710) with varying tempi structure and approach the concept of the instrumental suite, although Vivaldi names it a concert. Perhaps because he genuinely thinks instead of the current instrumental solo part, which is indeed more common in a concerto form.

This evening, Maestro Vivaldi also shares three of his own produced gems, which show his mastery of sound magic. Embed right in the middle of The Four Seasons, you will listen to the Ciaconna from the RV583 concert, the Tempesta di mare from the opera La fida nymph, and another Ciaconna, the one from the RV 370 violin concert.

However, he knows his melodies will still dance for a long time in your head and your life upon leaving this Venetian courtyard. It will take you at least a few hours to undo the spell…