Winter Rain op. 8/4/II

Antonio Vivaldi, 'the red-haired priest', spent most of his adult life as the superintendent of a musical school for orphan girls in Venice, and wrote many works for performance there. His output was prodigious, including nearly 50 operas and more than 500 concertos, but after his death his music was virtually ignored for over 100 years. Nowadays, with the huge growth of the early music industry, it is frequently performed. Perhaps his most famous work is the group of four descriptive concerti grossi collectively known as The Four Seasons.

Vivaldi wrote an explanatory sonnet to go with each season/concerto, with letters in the margin referring to particular sections of the score. The three other seasons contain musical representations of such delights as flies buzzing, dogs barking and drunkards snoring, but Winter is mainly a description of blood-curdlingly (for Italians) bad weather.

In this edition the original note-lengths have been doubled to make the music easier for beginners.

WINTER RAIN from The Four Seasons is suitable for the Christmas season...