Vivaldi: The Four Seasons (2000)

performed by Alan Loveday (violin), Celia Nicklin (oboe), Kenneth Heath (cello), Martin Gatt (bassoon), Neil Black (oboe), William Bennett (piccolo), Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Neville Marriner (conductor)
composed by Antonio Vivaldi

There was a time when every other recording played on any self-respecting classical radio station was made by Neville Marriner conducting the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. There were two reasons for this: one, Marriner and the Academy made some of the best, the brightest, and the most beautiful recordings ever made, and two, classical disc jockeys just loved saying "That was Neville Marriner conducting the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields." Of all their hundreds of recordings, this 1969 recording of Vivaldi's Four ... Read More

There was a time when every other recording played on any self-respecting classical radio station was made by Neville Marriner conducting the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. There were two reasons for this: one, Marriner and the Academy made some of the best, the brightest, and the most beautiful recordings ever made, and two, classical disc jockeys just loved saying "That was Neville Marriner conducting the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields." Of all their hundreds of recordings, this 1969 recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons was perhaps the most played of all. It had everything anyone could want from a Four Seasons. It has thoroughly prepared and brilliantly executed performances by the Academy, entirely elegant and astoundingly virtuosic performances by violin soloist Alan Loveday, wonderfully stylish and irresistibly rhythmic continuo playing by harpsichordist and organist Simon Preston, and marvelously imaginative and highly poetic conducting from Marriner. Although this recording of the Four... Read Less