'Vivaldi's The Four Seasons' review — this multisensory show invites you into the radiant world of classical music

Read our review of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, featuring a live string quartet and video projections, now in performances at The Underglobe to 30 August.

There is a risk in gilding the lily when the lily in question is Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. The composer’s sprightly allegros and pastoral adagios have long served as musical wallpaper for adverts and as hold music. But Icon Strings’ concept is refreshing: a live performance of Vivaldi’s work, accompanied by a cycle of video projections that mirror the shifting mood, colour and texture of each concerto. It’s a simple idea, executed with a precision ideally suited to a piece that is one of the earliest examples of programme music – music propelled by a narrative that interweaves with the score.

Vivaldi’s 1720 masterpiece of four violin concerti, here arranged for string quartet Icon Strings, uses melody and texture to dramatise each season with accompanying sonnets (also believed to have been written by Vivaldi) that serve as a libretto of sorts, read aloud by members of the quartet. The result is almost operatic in feel: a lyrical dialogue between the poetic landscape painted in words and the emotional one conjured by the instruments.

First comes Spring. Its bucolic charm rings out immediately, birdsong trills and gentle breezes all conjured with gentle clarity. The quartet navigate it with nimble elegance, bringing a fresh vitality to even the most famous phrases. The immersive projections wrapped around the audience complement the sound: a blossom-laden tree, backed by an alpine horizon, washing the room with a dreamlike ambience.

As we move into Summer, the aesthetic turns more oppressive. The air thickens. Insects jitter and buzz against a parched landscape, while clouds gather — ominous and slow. The tension builds across the movements until it bursts in the final allegro: a thunderstorm of ferocious intensity, rendered with spine-tingling charm.

Autumn lets us catch our breath. The concerto opens in celebration, with lilting rhythms and dancing melodies evoking the bountiful harvest. But beneath the revelry lingers a darker current. The music soon shifts into the hunt, a scene Vivaldi scores with cinematic precision. The music mimics galloping hooves, fired bullets, and panting prey, but also the emotional arc of pursuit, the thrill, the exhaustion, the sudden violence of the climax. The projections, too, lean into this drama: bronzing leaves evoke rustic beauty.

Then comes Winter, the most meditative of the four. The first movement captures the bitter cold, shivering figures, icy winds, treacherous paths. The music bites and snaps like frozen branches. Then the warmth melts through. The second movement shifts indoors, where the music softens, and the mood turns reflective. By the final movement, we return to the frost, before fading into a final, crystalline silence.

As an educational experience for younger audiences, the performance is thoughtfully designed. The quartet highlight key motifs, symbols and metaphors woven into the music, in the vein of in Prokofiev’s similarly accessible Peter and the Wolf. With its multisensory appeal, this Four Seasons is an inviting gateway into the radiant world of classical music.

Vivaldi's The Four Seasons is at The Underglobe to 30 August. Book Vivaldi's The Four Seasons tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk.

Photo credit: Vivaldi's The Four Seasons (Photo courtesy of the production)