Soaring into new Seasons

With the sizzling summer slowly winding down and the cool autumn breeze starts making its way, the H+H team is hard at work preparing for our new season, kicking off at Symphony Hall on October 8 + 10 with Vivaldi The Four Seasons. As our musicians rehearse tirelessly for you, we were able to collect the secrets you didn’t know about each of the four seasons, as well as insights about four of our talented musicians as well!

In appreciation for your support, we hope you enjoy this inside look at four musicians’ perspectives on the four seasons, both on and off the score.


Spring

Todd Williams, Principal Horn

Four Seasons, Spring with Todd Williams

What is your favorite season in Four Seasons? 

They're all so different, but I suppose I like Spring the best.

Why is this your favorite?

It’s filled with such joy; it bursts with energy! I can just feel the sun rays shining on my face while I listen to this music. I can't help but smile. The middle movement, however, is a bit somber comparatively speaking. And I've often wondered why? It seems out of place, really. Is it lamenting or reflecting, perhaps, on past seasons? I confess, I relish the quiet desolation of a bleak, midwinter's night. The innocence of solitude. The purity of quiet. The crisp chill in the air that pierces your very soul. There's something about the stillness of the moment and how it seemingly lasts forever... But it doesn't last for long, not with Spring and the promise of new life just around the corner.

What is the most challenging thing about Four Seasons (as a player and/or as a listener)?

Let me answer this by challenging the listener: Stretch your imagination. There are a lot of notes to take in, but don't just listen to the notes. Let your mind wander to a new place. Where does the music take you?

What are you looking forward to most about performing this with H+H next month?

While there is no horn part to Vivaldi's Four Seasons (alas), I'm looking forward to witnessing Aisslinn's star shine bright. That's an experience not to be missed.

What is your actual favorite season of the year and why?

Hmmm, Winter does come to mind... but Spring is so full of life and love and happiness! Autumn is quite nice - especially in New England! And who doesn't love Summer? But, I'm going to stick with Spring. There's something so fresh and vibrant about it all.

Summer

Ian Watson, Associate Conductor

man smiling

What is your favorite season in Four Seasons?

Summer.

Why is this your favorite?

I love Vivaldi’s surprising depiction of Summer. Where one is expecting bright, vivacious, and festive summer music, Vivaldi gives us an unrelentingly moisture-laden atmosphere, interspersed with both terrifying and thrilling thunderstorms. In Northern Italy, where Venice is located and Vivaldi [was] born, [they have] a four-season, humid sub-tropical climate with mild winters, and hot, wet, and humid summers!

The Four Seasons has been a major part of my life as a musician. I have been lucky enough to have taken part in many tours and concerts plus a number of recordings of the work. For about ten years, I played with an orchestra giving fifty to sixty performances a year. You do the math, but perhaps the Guinness Book of Records should be notified! I also got as far as counting 28 violinists, from Igor Oistrakh to Nigel Kennedy. I have to add our own inimitable Aisslinn to that list!

What is the most challenging thing about Four Seasons (as a player and/or as a listener)?

With so many performances of the same piece, my biggest challenge is to be constantly alert to nuance and expression in the moment, and never rely on the tried and trusted, or anything habitual. These are things which we avoid at all costs at H+H!

What are you looking forward to most about performing this with H+H next month?

I’m very much looking forward to joining Aisslinn and my colleagues in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, as I am certain all the fun and fireworks of this evergreen piece will be on full display!

What is your actual favorite season of the year and why?

Strangely enough, Summer! My childhood memories of summers in England are that the weather was often a hot, wet, and humid time of the year (no AC of course!), and that any activity was slow, draining, and laborious with frequent dashes for cover from the rain.

Autumn

Paula Chateauneuf, Theorbo

woman with an instrument

What is your favorite season in Four Seasons?

Autumn.

Why is this your favorite?

Autumn involves lots of special effects and opportunities to unleash your creativity as a musician. The music is notated in a conventional way but the sonnet accompanying this concerto really inspires a lot of personal creativity. It’s an opportunity to tell stories through your instrument. In the first movement, Ballo e Canto de Villanelle, you are invited to dance and sing; in the second [movement], Ubriachi dormienti, to be a sozzled sleeper, and in the third [movement], entitled ‘La Caccia’ (the Hunt), you’re instructed to imitate hunting dogs and guns. No specific directions are given but the sound of the guns is usually executed by a sort of slapped pizzicato, where you pull a string outwards as far as you can and then release it so it slaps against the fingerboard.

The second movement is a gift for a continuo player (my role in this piece). You can really put on your improvising wings for this movement, which is always a treat! It consists of a series of sustained mutating chords held by muted string players, while the instruction in the basso continuo part is Il cembalo arpeggio (the harpsichord arpeggiates). Here, I believe ‘harpsichord’ is shorthand for ’the continuo,’ so it can be any chordal instrument: harpsichord, or lute, or harp, or all of the above. This is a moment to unleash your invention as a chordal player. Vivaldi (unusually) clearly indicates exactly which chords he wants, but the way you arpeggiate the chords is up to you and your imagination. You decide which notes of those chords you play, and in which order, and whether you play connecting notes between the chordal tones, for example. You can paint a dreamscape, a nightmare(?!), or a drunken stupor by the way the chords are played.

What is the most challenging thing about Four Seasons (as a player and/or as a listener)?

As a continuo player, you [accompany] many of the virtuosic sections for the solo violinist in the [Four] Seasons. This is both a joy and a challenge - you have to absolutely 'be there' for the soloist at all times, playing the part you need to play while completely accommodating every twist and turn the soloist happens to take along the way. This is a very exciting part of the job, as it’s very possible that what occurs in performance will be different to what you might have rehearsed. I love it when a soloist luxuriates in a flight of fancy which the continuo section can respond to. It’s like having a conversation through music, and it doesn’t get much better than that! There’s a wonderful section in Autumn where the continuo section plays on the downbeat while the soloist plays on the upbeat; you stretch and pull and push against each other to paint a picture of the village people dancing and singing, and maybe doing a tug of war, as part of the harvest celebrations.

What are you looking forward to most about performing this with H+H next month?

I think the main thing to say is that I’m so looking forward to performing… after waiting 18 months to do this concert! I’m also very much looking forward to doing this piece with Aisslinn, who I know will approach it with loads of imagination.

What is your actual favorite season of the year and why?

My actual favorite season is summer, hands down. I love the sun and the heat. I have Mediterranean genes - French on my father’s side and Italian on my mother’s - so my whole system is set up for warm rays, bright sun and colors. I love the smell of herbs being kissed by the heat, the multicolored blossoms, the blue sky, the long nights, and the cool evening breeze against my arms and feet.

Winter

Heather Miller Lardin, Principal Bass

woman smiling with an instrument

What is your favorite season in Four Seasons?

Winter.

Why is this your favorite?

It's so weird! Vivaldi turns the special-effects knob up to eleven in this one. F minor is a fairly bleak key. There aren't many open strings we can use, so it takes extra work - as does getting about in winter weather. The bass line looks like nothing much on the page. It's made up mostly of repeated pitches and simple gestures. But Vivaldi gives us images via words in the score that help us bring them to life: "stamping the feet;" "winds;" "chattering teeth." It's very tactile and satisfying to make these sounds.

What is the most challenging thing about Four Seasons (as a player and/or as a listener)?

In the bass part, there are some super-fast passages that we all play in unison, and I have to keep up. No excuses! But that's a challenge I enjoy.

As a listener, it's easy to zone out to Vivaldi's familiar melodies. It can help to actively engage with the music's shifting emotions as the players project them; really try to feel rather than just hear. However, I don't think there is a wrong way to experience this wonderful music.

What are you looking forward to most about performing this with H+H next month?

It's going to be incredibly exciting to play these pieces infused with the energy and inspiration of a live audience. When we were making videos last season we had limited time and sometimes had to be more cautious that we might have liked - and we were looking out into empty seats. This time all bets are off, and I can't wait to find out what Aisslinn is going to do. You just never know...

What is your actual favorite season of the year and why?

Winter stresses me out. I'm always cold, and if it snows I can't get to rehearsals. Fall is more my style: the excitement of a new academic year, rich colors in nature, sweater weather, and all things pumpkin spice!


What is your favorite season?