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| CELEBRATORY & EXUBERANT, this is the most famous movement of the Four Seasons. In fact, the joyous introduction is one of the most quoted passages in all music. The main theme leads into some tone painting of birdcalls, breezes and brooks. Lightning and thunder darken the middle of piece, but the calmer sounds of nature come back slowly, and the infectious opening themes are reprised. (see Track Info for album notes) |
MP3.com CD: Four Seasons Jazz -  buy it!
Credits: (c) 2002 Convergent Vision |
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| SOLEMN & POIGNANT, this Spring Largo is music for a light rain, wet enough to keep you indoors, but soft enough to watch for its soothing beauty. The music consists of a melancholic melody, delivered once and again with variation. I then repeat everything in a freer style. Vivaldi meant the two bass notes every bar to be the barking of a dog, but they function perfectly as an off-beat pulse guiding the melifluous song line. |
MP3.com CD: Four Seasons Jazz - buy it!
Credits: (c) 2002 Convergent Vision |
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| PASTORAL & GLEEFUL, the third movement has the feel of an ancient country scene. One of many solo passages ensues at 0:44, using a favorite Vivaldi progression in which a motive moves a step up with each bar. The pastoral theme returns in the minor mode, and a darker mood emerges. The major key is quickly restored, and many rapid tunes carry the piece along. Dark ideas continue to intrude, but the idyllic jubilation returns with one last reprise of the pastoral motif. |
MP3.com CD: Four Seasons Jazz - buy it!
Credits: (c) 2002 Convergent Vision |
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| RESTLESS & DRAMATIC, no other piece from the Four Seasons has the range of emotional highs and lows to be found in the first movement of Summer. It begins with the mysterious dark colours of a July night before a storm. But tension builds quickly, culminating in a violent spasm released by the North wind. A plaintive peasant chant follows, but is soon disrupted by the stormy wind and a furious coda. |
MP3.com CD: Air on a G String MAXI SINGLE - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Four Seasons Jazz - buy it!
Credits: (c) 2002 Convergent Vision |
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| ROMANTIC & SOOTHING, in contrast to its two stormy outer movements, the Adagio of Summer is about sunshine and tranquility. Each phrase of the melody is a beautiful fragment worthy of basking in. As such, I repeat the whole movement at 3:12 in a rhapsodic Moonlight Sonata style, with comforting triplets outlining the harmony, and an evocative variation of the song above. Each phrase, however, remains punctuated by an ominous hint at the instability of the Summer season, and the movement to come. |
MP3.com CD: Air on a G String MAXI SINGLE - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Four Seasons Jazz - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Romantic Classics Jazz EP - buy it!
Credits: (c) 2002 Convergent Vision |
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| MANIC & TEMPESTUOUS, this vivid depiction of a summer storm is the most turbulent movement of the Four Seasons. A rumbling motive opens the piece, and a flurry of scales drives it onwards. Dampened solo fragments nervously flit about, until a drum roll leads to a wild revelling in the power of Summer. Scales and rumbles continue to alternate with twitchy exhortations, until a collective groan drives the movement into the earth. This is the shortest piece in the collection, ending the longest Season as a whole. |
MP3.com CD: Air on a G String MAXI SINGLE - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Four Seasons Jazz - buy it!
Credits: (c) 2002 Convergent Vision |
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| FESTIVE & ROWDY, this is the wild, intoxicating music of a bountiful harvest. The unrestrained stamping of the introductory theme is filled with outrageous energy, and is repeated more than any other theme in the Four Seasons. But an unexpected twist near the end brings in sad wisps of melody, that fade into silence. And then *surprise* the stamping theme returns for one last hurrah. |
MP3.com CD: Fur Elise MAXI SINGLE - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Four Seasons Jazz - buy it!
Credits: (c) 2002 Convergent Vision |
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| MYSTERIOUS & SOMBRE, this Adagio Molto is a dirge-like procession of dark and mournful chords. No movement of the Seasons goes through so many chord shifts in such a short period. In the first iteration, sostenuto piano bass and gong meld to create a gloomy primordial wash. From this sonic ectoplasm, a walking bass line and crisp percussion emerge at 2:10 for a surprise repeat. |
MP3.com CD: Fur Elise MAXI SINGLE - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Four Seasons Jazz - buy it!
Credits: (c) 2002 Convergent Vision |
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| SPIRITED & DYNAMIC, the last movement of Autumn programmatically depicts a hunt for wild game. An emphatic introduction spins off a variety of solo episodes. A rapidly trembling passage is transformed into a quasi-romantic interlude using soft arpeggios over drum brush at 1:10. Melodic fragments then alternate with scales that take flight set to triplets. Timpani and tremolos lead up to a more contemplative sequence, as beast falls prey to man, and the main theme then brings the hunt to a rousing finish. |
MP3.com CD: Fur Elise MAXI SINGLE - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Four Seasons Jazz - buy it!
Credits: (c) 2002 Convergent Vision |
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| WHISPERED & DEFIANT, Winter is the quietest of all the Seasons. The mesmerizing introduction consists of a slow pileup of bold chords. Solo passages increase in intensity, until they yield to a vigorous repeated-note section at 1:23, another well-known passage from the Seasons. The hushed tones resume, and we hear shivering, chattering, and trembling all lead to the rousing close. |
MP3.com CD: Nocturne MAXI SINGLE - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Four Seasons Jazz - buy it!
Credits: (c) 2002 Convergent Vision |
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| BEAUTIFUL & TRANQUIL, here we have the best known Vivaldi slow movement. The beautiful melody is developed as a ballad, with wind chimes giving it a Christmas feeling. But this magical piece ends in just under two minutes. Unwilling to forget such lovely music, I repeat the whole movement with the melody harmonized starting at 1:58, filled with florid and festive ornamentations. |
MP3.com CD: Nocturne MAXI SINGLE - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Four Seasons Jazz - buy it!
Credits: (c) 2002 Convergent Vision |
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| LONELY & SUBDUED, this is the perfect soundtrack to a snow-bound day. The piece opens with an intimate soliloquy on a basic 6-note pattern, which Vivaldi likens to a slippery walk on ice. A number of falling figurations are followed by a recasting of the opening solo. Some abrupt motives depict the cracking of ice. A tender passage for the warm desert wind appears, only to be overrun by a frenetic North wind toccata, bringing Winter to an icy finish. |
MP3.com CD: Nocturne MAXI SINGLE - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Four Seasons Jazz - buy it!
Credits: (c) 2002 Convergent Vision |
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| INTIMATE & ENIGMATIC, Beethoven wrote this tuneful classic in 1810 for Therese Malfatti, aka Elise. Today, it is his most popular piano piece based on sheet music sales. After a repeated introduction of the pining main theme, it alternates with two episodes of contrasting material. The first is a brief lyrical passage, made even sunnier by the surrounding dark moods. The second episode is an excited declaration over agitated bass. |
MP3.com CD: Fur Elise MAXI SINGLE - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Romantic Classics Jazz EP - buy it!
Credits: (c) 2002 Convergent Vision |
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| BEAUTIFUL & ROMANTIC, this is one of Bach's most loved creations. A sublime melody, which never repeats itself once, is spun over a resolutely stepping bass line. Here it is transcribed for piano and bass, giving the piece a rhapsodic and highly personal character. The haltingly slow pace even gives it a tinge of longing and sadness. I repeat each half of the air, the second time with percussion. |
MP3.com CD: Air on a G String MAXI SINGLE - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Romantic Classics Jazz EP - buy it!
Credits: (c) 2003 Convergent Vision |
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| ROMANTIC & ORNATE, Chopin's famous Nocturne Op.9 No.2 captures the listeners attention in its first bars. A velvety melody unfolds romantically over gently rocking triplets. It is repeated twice before a new idea enters to calm the intensity. The main melody returns two more times, each time with even more ornamentation. Finally, a hushed bridge passage builds up to an effusive and capricious coda. |
MP3.com CD: Nocturne MAXI SINGLE - buy it!
MP3.com CD: Romantic Classics Jazz EP - buy it!
Credits: (c) 2003 Convergent Vision |
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| LYRICAL & CAPTIVATING, Schubert's Ave Maria is perhaps the most beautiful song ever composed. The poignant melody keeps to a very contained range but artfully weaves in and out of different keys and harmonies. Here it is repeated twice, the second time with a light veil of cymbals. The main melody is entrusted to the flute, while a piano and bass keep a steady accompaniment. |
MP3.com CD: Romantic Classics Jazz EP - buy it!
Credits: (c) 2003 Convergent Vision |
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| GENTLE & MESMERIZING, the famous Gounod Ave Maria is based on the opening piece to Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, a book of 24 preludes and fugues. The Prelude in C Major, the most famous as well as the simplest of the preludes, consists of a sequence of arpeggiated chords travelling through different keys and moods. Gounod added a bar to Bach's progressions and superimposed a graceful melody on it using the Latin text of the Ave Maria, aka the Hail Mary. |
MP3.com CD: Romantic Classics Jazz EP - buy it!
Credits: (c) 2003 Convergent Vision |
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| FRENETIC & IMPETUOUS, the second prelude from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, begins with a flurry of broken chords. It races along until it stops for a dark and plaintive recitativo. A busy fugato sequence based on the earlier arpeggiated figuration intrudes, until it is subdued by a mysterious adagio, that ends hesitatingly in C major. The very last E is a beautiful punctuation point to the piece, much more so than an unconvincing but supposedly more resounding C. |
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Credits: (c) 2003 Convergent Vision |
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| COOL & DEBONAIR, this unique piano & brass concerto is a fusion of jazz, classical and electronica. After a brief introduction, the bass plucks out the underlying motive. The piano takes up it, adding the main theme, which is next commandeered by the brass. The piano introduces a secondary theme in the chorus, more harmony than melody, while the brass create ferocious punctuation marks. The middle section is a jazzy contrapuntal development of the basic ideas. The first section is then reprised with important changes. |
MP3.com CD: Blue Lizard Concerto EP (v2) - buy it!
Credits: (c) 2002 Convergent Vision |
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| BOLD & PLAYFUL, the second movement of this innovative concerto is a fusion of classical and dance/electronica esthetics. It is cast in ABA form, filled with plenty of acoustic instruments and synth flourishes. The first section begins with a bass kernel, over which brass and string introduce a higly-rhythmic theme. The piano enters with a second, more lyrical theme, accompanied by strrings, winds and synths. The middle section develops many of these harmonic and melodic ideas. The intensity increases with all instruments playing forte, leading to a reprise of the first section. |
MP3.com CD: Blue Lizard Concerto EP (v2) - buy it!
Credits: (c) 2003 Convergent Vision |
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| JUBILANT & COLORFUL, this symphonic fragment is a mini orchestral showcase. The strings begin by stating a harmonic progression, which is repeated several times. With each repetition, a new woodwind melody enters, in effect elaborations of the underlying harmony. The climax is returned to the strings, with brass chords marching along, while a delicate woodwind web is woven in the background. The harp then introduces a mystical phrase which finally yields to the original harmonic pattern. |
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Credits: (c) 2003 Convergent Vision |
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| WAGNERIAN & HYPER-EMOTIONAL, this is music on an existential search. The high strings probe and question with each turn of their chromatic melody. The lower strings modulate slowly through a series of chords, while synths paint a spacey soundscape. As the notes push higher and higher until they can go no further, the piece dies with a sense of partial resolution. |
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Credits: (c) 2002 Convergent Vision |
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