Antonio Vivaldi: The Four Seasons [Hardcover]

Metropolitan Museum of Art (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1999

This edition is a reproduction of the first edition of "The Four Seasons" book. A compact disc of the music is accompanied by the sonnets which inspired the concertos and the artwork of Vivaldi's Venice. Rococo illustrations from The Metropolitan Museum of Art capture the allure of Venice.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Italian (translation)
Original Language: Italian --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is among the world's greatest cultural institutions, home to more than 3 million works of art.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 60 pages
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company (September 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0821226177
• ISBN-13: 978-0821226179
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #656,963 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #15 in Books > Arts & Photography > Music > Theory, Composition & Performance > Sheet Music & Scores > Composers > Vivaldi

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Neat Little Package, August 15, 2009

By 

J. S. Kaminski "j_s_k" (Aberdeen, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Antonio Vivaldi: The Four Seasons (Hardcover)

This book, which is a combination of music/text/pictures, is an excellent way to experience Vivaldi's "Four Seasons." Many people are familiar with the music, but how many know that sonnets were printed along with it, to help give imagery to the concertos as they're heard? This book takes that idea one step further, adding prints of paintings from artists who were active during Vivaldi's lifetime. All of these prints depict scenes from the various seasons, and all can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The aforementioned sonnets appear alongside the prints, and are listed in both English and the original Italian verse.

A few notes: the music comes in the form of a CD, and it is encased in plastic on the inside back cover of the book. One should be careful when removing the plastic, because if you remove too much of it, you won't have a place to store the CD. I cut a slit a few inches down so that I can remove the CD but also return it there when finished. There is no "jewel case" for the CD. On a positive note, an extra concerto was included on the CD, which is not part of "The Four Seasons." Vivaldi's "Concerto for Mandolin" etc. (RV 425) can be found at the end of the CD, an unexpected bonus!

Four stars. A nice little combination to be experiecned together - listen to the music, read the sonnets, and view the paitings. This makes an excellent inexpensive gift for a music lover (or even for yourself)!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars th 4 seasons, March 29, 2000

By 

Jessica (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Four Seasons (Dover Miniature Music Scores) (Paperback)

This is truely a beautiful piece of music, is a pleasure to play

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Colourful!, December 7, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Antonio Vivaldi: The Four Seasons (Hardcover)

This book from the Metropolitan Museum of Art is so cute!
It took awhile to get to me but well worth the wait! Aside from the rich pictures of 18th century scenery and people, this book can also be used as a picture book for children.
With the sonnets for each season, the pictures lets your imagination go back in time. The 4 seasons are wonderful concerti and the pictures helped imagine the music on another level.
The only thing that was lacking was the CD that went with it. I did not find it to be the best recording, but good nonetheless.