Vivaldi: The Four Seasons DVD

Birds sing and all is well in the huge glass dome of the National Botanical Garden of Wales in this visual performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Here we have fine, stylistically middle-of-the-road readings from the young and talented Julia Fischer and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. It's remarkable to discover that this is her first recording, so assured does she seem, and so at ease in front of the camera. But how do you add visual spice to a work that is so well known? Well, the answer here is two-fold. For a start, the soloist gets a new outfit for each... season (though the poor old orchestra are dressed in what looks like Hessian sacking), and the lighting is done with sensitivity--"Winter" is most affectingly set in a darkened dome. Second, there is a neat "Director's Cut" option, featuring the same performance but with different visuals. While the camera returns frequently to the action inside the glass house, it's complemented by scenes of visual beauty (not always nature's own): dew on a spider's web, playful fountains, meadows of wild flowers. The effect is thoroughly pastoral, but was it a good idea to record this work complete with trickling water and a leitmotiv of tweeting birds? Perhaps not. However, if you can get round these distractions, the performance itself is eminently recommendable. On the DVD: The Four Seasons, as usual with Opus Arte DVDs, is generously filled with extras. As well as two complete performances of the work, there's a 13-minute interview with Julia Fischer (charming but relatively unenlightening) and "Favourite Seasons", a man in the street-type survey of the public's favourite times of year. Fischer adds her own comments to this but it's probably something that will pall after a single viewing. The surround sound recording is excellent and superbly balanced, and the visuals are a delight: sharp and in pristine colour. --Harriet Smith [show more]

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