Antonio Vivaldi: The Four Seasons

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons are dedicated to “Signor Venceslao Conte di Marzin”; in the title, Vivaldi refers to himself as “Maestro in Italia dell’Illustrissimo Signore Conte Sudetto”. In 1759, a member of the same Bohemian aristocratic family, Count Franz von Morzin, was to employ the twenty-seven-year-old Haydn as Kapellmeister. From the preface we learn that the Prete Rosso (as Vivaldi was also called) had often played an early version of these violin concertos for the count. The sonnets were not added until the works were printed. František Jiránek, a composer largely unknown today, was born to servants of Count Wenzel von Morzin. The artistically-minded count enabled Jiránek to train in Venice between 1724 and 1726 where he studied in the same environment as, and possibly even under, Antonio Vivaldi.