Yet we know from Bach's transcriptions of works by Vivaldi and other Italian composers, from surviving ornamented versions of slow movements by Corelli and others, and even from descriptions of Vivaldi's own playing that it was common - even expected - to hear ornamentation in this kind of music. Vivaldi's solo lines in the slow movements are generally extremely simple. One of the greatest challenges in performing such a well known and frequently recorded work as The Four Seasons - and particularly a work that has so much colorful characterization in it - is to interpret it in a way that is honest and personal, without sounding arbitrary or self-consciously "different." One feature has perhaps been "different" in Boston Baroque’s performances and recording, though, is the attitude toward ornamentation in the slow movements. Originating in Italy during Vivaldi's lifetime and now housed in Manchester, England, that manuscript copy is both unusually accurate and a source for interesting variants in the text. No autograph manuscript has survived, but, in addition to the Amsterdam edition, there is a valuable manuscript set of instrumental parts for all four concertos. They are dedicated to Count Morzin of Bohemia, and from that dedication we learn that these were not new works but that they had found favor with the count some years earlier. The Seasons were first published in Amsterdam in 1725 as the first four of a set of twelve concertos by Vivaldi with the overall title Il cimento dell' armonia e dell' inventione (The contest between harmony and invention), opus 8.
The first complete recording of them dates from 1942, but it was after the second World War that they achieved the broad popularity that they enjoy today. Although The Seasons were not among the concertos that Bach transcribed, they soon came to public attention as the Vivaldi revival continued. The gradual revival of Vivaldi's music from that time was at first of interest to musicologists because of its influence on Bach, who had studied it and transcribed a number of the concertos for harpsichord.
Then, along with the rest of Vivaldi's output, The Four Seasons fell out of the repertoire for over a century before being "rediscovered" in the first part of the twentieth century. Spring (La primavera), perhaps the particular favorite of the French, was not only often heard in its original form but was also arranged for larger forces (a choral motet by Michel Corette) and smaller (a version for flute alone by Jean-Jacques Rousseau). The concertos were especially popular in France, where they were played many times in the Concert Spirituel. Vivaldi's The Four Seasons are not only among the most popular pieces of classical music today, but they circulated widely in the composer's time, as well, and inspired programmatic pieces by others.
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