Antonio Vivaldi’s collection of twelve concerti opus 8 was published in Amsterdam in 1725. He gave descriptive titles to seven of the twelve, including the four concerti representing the seasons: la primavera, estate, autumno, l’inverno.

For the four seasons, Vivaldi included four sonnets, apparently written by himself, each of which is divided into three ideas, reflecting the three movements (fast-slow-fast) of each concerto. The 1725 publication indicated which musical passages are representative of which verses of the sonnets. These rarely recorded sonnets are heard on this CD in the original Italian.

The youthful musicians of EUBO are joined by a different soloist for each of the seasons.