The Four Seasons: Winter

In the first of four programmes across 2025 marking the 300th anniversary of the publication of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, Hannah French explores the Violin Concerto in F minor, RV297 - better known as Winter. From the trembling, teeth-chattering cold of the first movement to the fireside warmth of the second and the slippery ice and chill winds of the last, in this concerto Vivaldi vividly depicts the harsh brutality of the Venetian winter. Hannah considers the context and inspirations for the music, and shares other early music influenced by the season of frost and darkness. She talks to violinist Daniel Pioro, whose new recording of The Four Seasons couples Vivaldi's music with new poetry by Michael Morpurgo, about what Vivaldi's Winter means to him. And she sends us a sonic snapshot from a recent trip to the Venetian Lagoon, which completely froze over in the brutal winter of 1709 to devastating effect to local communities. To listen to this programme using most smart speakers just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play The Early Music Show".

You can listen to The Four Seasons: Winter online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The Four Seasons: Winter is an episode from The Early Music Show by BBC.

This episode is 27:09 long.

This episode was published on Mar 20, 2025.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from The Early Music Show when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.