Description

ANTONIO VIVALDI: Largo, from Violin Concerto in F minor, ‘Winter’, RV 297
Arranged for bassoon quartet by Michael A. Grant
 
Vivaldi’s set of four violin concertos, titled ‘The Four Seasons’, are one of the composer’s most popular works. Each concerto seeks to musically express a season of the year, and Vivaldi included a set of sonnets with the pieces which give more precise details of what the music is attempting to convey. The second movement of the ‘Winter’ concerto (‘Largo’) is accompanied by the text: ‘To rest contentedly beside the hearth, while those outside are drenched by pouring rain’.
 
This arrangement can be performed as a bassoon quartet or (by eliminating the optional 4th part) as a trio.