Master class

Master Class with Sergey Ostrovksy

Vivaldi's Four Seasons: Summer - First Movement

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Cast

Sergey Ostrovksy — Teacher, violinist

Tamir Tavor — Violinist

Sander Sittig — Pianist

Program notes

Called "one of the most oustanding Israeli violinists" by Isaac Stern, first violinist of the Aviv Quartet Sergey Ostrovsky gives a master class at the Villa Sandra Lesa in Lesa, Italy, working with Tamir Tavor on the first movement of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons: Summer.

Vivaldi's The Four Seasons includes some of the most recognizable music of the classical repertoire. This set of four violin concertos was composed around 1721 and published in Amsterdam in 1725. They are some of the earliest examples of programmatic orchestral music: each concerto is paired with a sonnet that describes one of the four seasons. For example, the first movement of the Concerto in G minor, "Summer", is paired with the following text (translated from Italian):

Beneath the blazing sun's relentless heat, men and flocks are sweltering, pines are scorched.
We hear the cuckoo's voice; then sweet songs of the turtle dove and finch are heard.
Soft breezes stir the air….but threatening north wind sweeps them suddenly aside.
The shepherd trembles, fearful of violent storm and what may lie ahead.

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