Though Antonio Vivaldi was an extremely prolific composer, writing over 500 concerti for various instruments, few of his compositions have had the kind of lasting notoriety attained by The Four Seasons. Undoubtedly his best-remembered work, this set of four violin concerti comes from a larger collection of 12 violin concerti entitled The Contest Between Harmony and Invention. Each concerto in The Four Seasons represents a different season of the year, and is based on an accompanying sonnet, speculated to have been written by Vivaldi himself. In addition to helping define the concerto form (three movements, fast-slow-fast), The Four Seasons also explored the boundaries of programmatic music: the concerti contain sections evoking barking dogs, singing birds, thunderstorms, and drunken farmers, among other things. This Urtext edition is complete, containing violin and piano reduction parts for all four seasons. Edited by Christopher Hogwood. Published by Barenreiter Verlag. Difficulty: A5