(2026) Vivaldi and Müller
Category(ies): Concerto
Instrument(s): Violin
Main Composer: Antonio Vivaldi
Ensemble: Ensemble Ostinato
CD set: 1
Catalog N°:
CD 3132
Release: 13.02.2026
EAN/UPC: 7619931313221
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VAT included for Switzerland & UE
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This album is now on repressing. Pre-order it at a special price now.
CHF 18.50
This album is no longer available on CD.
This album has not been released yet.
Pre-order it at a special price now.
CHF 18.50
This album is no longer available on CD.
CHF 18.50
This album is no longer available on CD.
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VIVALDI AND MÜLLER
When Seasons Sing – A Wild Tapestry
On a list of the most well-known classical works, even beyond circles devoted to classical music, Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons undoubtedly ranks near the top, alongside Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Yet, this cycle of four three-movement violin concertos enjoys not only enduring popularity among audiences but also serves as a seemingly inexhaustible source of inspiration for composers and musicians alike. Admittedly, even before Vivaldi’s violin concertos were first published in Amsterdam in 1725, composers had already engaged with the themes of seasons and nature: the English composer Christopher Simpson wrote the gamba fantasies The Four Seasons, and as early as the Renaissance, Clément Janequin drew inspiration from birdsong in Le Chant des Oiseaux. Yet it was Vivaldi’s Seasons that swiftly became the lodestar of this early program music. As early as the 18th century, numerous composers adapted the work or parts of it. Michel Corrette, for instance, transformed Spring into a sacred piece, while Nicolas Chédeville arranged it for musette and hurdy-gurdy. To this day, it has been arranged for countless ensembles and instruments, reinterpreted in jazz, film scores, and folk music, and quoted or reimagined in contemporary works. British composer Max Richter even recomposed Vivaldi’s Four Seasons entirely – his Winter now pulses in an irregular, stomping 7/8 rhythm.
Swiss composer Fabian Müller takes a less radical approach. In 2016, on a commission from the Murten Classics Festival, he composed a Prelude and three Intermezzi for violinist Kamilla Schatz, each designed to precede Vivaldi’s violin concertos. Unlike Richter, Müller leaves the original intact, preparing the four concertos with evocative mood-pictures, “rolling out a red carpet for them”, as he puts it. Violinist Silvan Dezini, in this recording, strives to create a pure, unadorned version of The Four Seasons, aiming to render the sonic imagery of both Vivaldi’s and Müller’s compositions as faithfully to nature as possible. To this end, Dezini collaborated closely with Müller: “This helped me understand what Fabian was trying to express with his pieces, and I was able to discover new connections between Vivaldi and Müller.”
The Prelude to Spring opens on the low G string with a garland of triads. Soon, lively dance motifs unfold, at times wild, at times elegiac, eventually giving way to a sustained sonic backdrop over which the solo violin mimics the chirping of birds. Without pause, Vivaldi’s violin concerto follows, where the same birdsong, now in a Baroque context, can be heard again. Listeners will notice other resonances as well, the string tremolos from the first movement, the layered textures of the calm, pastoral middle movement, or the shepherd dances in the third, all of which Müller foreshadows in his own sound language.
Those imagining a carefree Alpine summer in the Swiss mountains, complete with cowbells as in Richard Strauss’s Alpine Symphony, will find themselves mistaken in Vivaldi’s second seasonal concerto. True, he too composes a no less menacing thunderstorm. But Vivaldi’s Summer is far from cheerful: oppressive heat paralyzes man and animals, with cuckoo, dove, and goldfinch unable to change the mood. Only flies and mosquitoes, portrayed by the violins, pester the resting shepherd, while the first thunderclaps, racing sixteenth notes in the strings, herald the coming storm. It is this stifling atmosphere that Müller prepares in his Intermezzo for Summer. Only the middle section is somewhat livelier: in a kind of double preview, we hear the first cuckoo calls over the violin’s rumbling thunder.
The Intermezzo for Autumn similarly anticipates the mood of the concerto that follows. It captures the rustic character of Vivaldi’s Autumn, particularly its final movement, in a playful, spirited waltz, condensed, elevated, and almost exaggeratedly so. Indeed, Vivaldi’s Autumn is thoroughly rustic, as the first stanza of the sonnet – Vivaldi wrote an explanatory sonnet for each season – makes clear:
The peasant celebrates with song and dance
the harvest safely gathered in.
The cup of Bacchus flows freely,
and many find their relief in deep slumber.
The relationship between the original and the additions goes beyond mere mood-painting. Müller, for instance, anticipates the stomping eighth notes and the fifths motif of the third movement, which depicts a hunt.
This is no different in the Intermezzo for Winter. It begins with the same notes as Vivaldi’s Winter and evolves into an a seemingly endless melody for the solo violin, supported by chords in the strings with varied shadings. At the same time, the Winter Intermezzo is the most independent piece in the set. Müller juxtaposes Vivaldi’s dark, dramatic Winter with an equally somber yet distinctly meditative interpretation of the cold season. Unlike Vivaldi, who, living in Venice, likely knew the cold winter mainly through descriptions – his sonnet evokes postcard-like scenes such as trudging through snow, sitting by the fireplace, or skating on a frozen lake – Müller’s Intermezzo makes the biting cold almost palpable, with the cembalo’s tone garlands mimicking the crackling of ice crystals.
The recording is rounded out with another Vivaldi classic, his 19 variations on the Follia model. This dance form, originating in Portugal, served as a melodic-harmonic framework for numerous Baroque composers’ variation movements, including Arcangelo Corelli’s final sonata in his trio sonata collection, Op. 5, from 1700. It inevitably inspired the young Venetian composer, who, five years later, concluded his Opus 1 with a sonata based on this “exuberance” or “madness”, as the Italians called the dance at the time. But whereas Corelli’s version was written for a solo voice with continuo, Vivaldi composed his in a trio setting, with two melodic instruments and continuo. The focus is thus on the virtuosic interplay between the two solo violins, though the bass line often joins in with brilliant imitative passages. Even today, the Follia has lost none of its wild abandon, fitting perfectly into a program where epochs not only meet but break through their boundaries, sometimes sounding just a little wild. Like the seasons, the Follia returns time and again, and within this continuity, there is undoubtedly room for the unexpected and the extravagant, be it a summer storm or tempestuous string passages.
Silvio Badolato
SILVAN DEZINI
The young Swiss violinist Silvan Dezini grew up in Spreitenbach and began playing the violin at the age of seven. He has won multiple first prizes with distinction at competitions, paving the way for numerous solo performances both in Switzerland and abroad, including with the Bavarian Philharmonic and the Franz Schmidt Chamber Orchestra. Dezini also looks back on several concerts alongside the renowned violinist Sebastian Bohren and has performed with the Aargau-based ensemble Chaarts. He has attended masterclasses with distinguished professors such as Igor Ozim, Ana Chumachenko, and Ingolf Turban.
After completing his bachelor’s degree in Classical Music at the Zurich University of the Arts under Andreas Janke, Dezini is now pursuing a master’s in Classical Music Pedagogy at the Bern Academy of the Arts, studying with Bartek Niziol. He performs on a violin crafted by the Milanese Grancino family of luthiers, sourced from a private Swiss collection. Dezini also serves as the artistic director of the Ostinato concert series in the canton of Aargau.
FABIAN MÜLLER
Fabian Müller’s (*1964) works have been premiered by musicians such as David Zinman, Andris Nelsons, Christopher Hogwood, Steven Isserlis, Dame Evelyn Glennie, and Henning Kraggerud, and have been performed in renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Elbphilharmonie, Tonhalle Zürich, and Teatro Colón. He has written commissioned works for, among others, the Lucerne Festival, the Interlaken Music Festival, Cully Classique, and the Vestfold Festspillene.
His opera EIGER (2021/22) was enthusiastically acclaimed by audiences and critics. His family opera Heidi und das Weihnachtswunder (2022/23) also enjoyed great success. Recordings with orchestras such as the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra document his extensive work. In 2024, he was nominated for the OPUS Klassik award in the “Composer of the Year” category. In 2016, he was awarded a “Swiss Music Prize”. In addition to composition and leading festivals (TWICF, Confluence Musikfest), he is also dedicated to folk music: he spent ten years working on the publication of the Hanny Christen Collection.
OSTINATO ENSEMBLE
Sebastian Bohren, Violine 1
Yumiko Huguenin-Dumittan, Violine 2
Markus Fleck, Viola
Andreas Fleck, Violoncello
Catalina Paredes, Kontrabass
Reymond Huguenin-Dumittan, Theorbe
Naoko Matsumoto, Cembalo
(2026) Vivaldi and Müller - CD 3132
When Seasons Sing – A Wild Tapestry
On a list of the most well-known classical works, even beyond circles devoted to classical music, Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons undoubtedly ranks near the top, alongside Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Yet, this cycle of four three-movement violin concertos enjoys not only enduring popularity among audiences but also serves as a seemingly inexhaustible source of inspiration for composers and musicians alike. Admittedly, even before Vivaldi’s violin concertos were first published in Amsterdam in 1725, composers had already engaged with the themes of seasons and nature: the English composer Christopher Simpson wrote the gamba fantasies The Four Seasons, and as early as the Renaissance, Clément Janequin drew inspiration from birdsong in Le Chant des Oiseaux. Yet it was Vivaldi’s Seasons that swiftly became the lodestar of this early program music. As early as the 18th century, numerous composers adapted the work or parts of it. Michel Corrette, for instance, transformed Spring into a sacred piece, while Nicolas Chédeville arranged it for musette and hurdy-gurdy. To this day, it has been arranged for countless ensembles and instruments, reinterpreted in jazz, film scores, and folk music, and quoted or reimagined in contemporary works. British composer Max Richter even recomposed Vivaldi’s Four Seasons entirely – his Winter now pulses in an irregular, stomping 7/8 rhythm.
Swiss composer Fabian Müller takes a less radical approach. In 2016, on a commission from the Murten Classics Festival, he composed a Prelude and three Intermezzi for violinist Kamilla Schatz, each designed to precede Vivaldi’s violin concertos. Unlike Richter, Müller leaves the original intact, preparing the four concertos with evocative mood-pictures, “rolling out a red carpet for them”, as he puts it. Violinist Silvan Dezini, in this recording, strives to create a pure, unadorned version of The Four Seasons, aiming to render the sonic imagery of both Vivaldi’s and Müller’s compositions as faithfully to nature as possible. To this end, Dezini collaborated closely with Müller: “This helped me understand what Fabian was trying to express with his pieces, and I was able to discover new connections between Vivaldi and Müller.”
The Prelude to Spring opens on the low G string with a garland of triads. Soon, lively dance motifs unfold, at times wild, at times elegiac, eventually giving way to a sustained sonic backdrop over which the solo violin mimics the chirping of birds. Without pause, Vivaldi’s violin concerto follows, where the same birdsong, now in a Baroque context, can be heard again. Listeners will notice other resonances as well, the string tremolos from the first movement, the layered textures of the calm, pastoral middle movement, or the shepherd dances in the third, all of which Müller foreshadows in his own sound language.
Those imagining a carefree Alpine summer in the Swiss mountains, complete with cowbells as in Richard Strauss’s Alpine Symphony, will find themselves mistaken in Vivaldi’s second seasonal concerto. True, he too composes a no less menacing thunderstorm. But Vivaldi’s Summer is far from cheerful: oppressive heat paralyzes man and animals, with cuckoo, dove, and goldfinch unable to change the mood. Only flies and mosquitoes, portrayed by the violins, pester the resting shepherd, while the first thunderclaps, racing sixteenth notes in the strings, herald the coming storm. It is this stifling atmosphere that Müller prepares in his Intermezzo for Summer. Only the middle section is somewhat livelier: in a kind of double preview, we hear the first cuckoo calls over the violin’s rumbling thunder.
The Intermezzo for Autumn similarly anticipates the mood of the concerto that follows. It captures the rustic character of Vivaldi’s Autumn, particularly its final movement, in a playful, spirited waltz, condensed, elevated, and almost exaggeratedly so. Indeed, Vivaldi’s Autumn is thoroughly rustic, as the first stanza of the sonnet – Vivaldi wrote an explanatory sonnet for each season – makes clear:
The peasant celebrates with song and dance
the harvest safely gathered in.
The cup of Bacchus flows freely,
and many find their relief in deep slumber.
The relationship between the original and the additions goes beyond mere mood-painting. Müller, for instance, anticipates the stomping eighth notes and the fifths motif of the third movement, which depicts a hunt.
This is no different in the Intermezzo for Winter. It begins with the same notes as Vivaldi’s Winter and evolves into an a seemingly endless melody for the solo violin, supported by chords in the strings with varied shadings. At the same time, the Winter Intermezzo is the most independent piece in the set. Müller juxtaposes Vivaldi’s dark, dramatic Winter with an equally somber yet distinctly meditative interpretation of the cold season. Unlike Vivaldi, who, living in Venice, likely knew the cold winter mainly through descriptions – his sonnet evokes postcard-like scenes such as trudging through snow, sitting by the fireplace, or skating on a frozen lake – Müller’s Intermezzo makes the biting cold almost palpable, with the cembalo’s tone garlands mimicking the crackling of ice crystals.
The recording is rounded out with another Vivaldi classic, his 19 variations on the Follia model. This dance form, originating in Portugal, served as a melodic-harmonic framework for numerous Baroque composers’ variation movements, including Arcangelo Corelli’s final sonata in his trio sonata collection, Op. 5, from 1700. It inevitably inspired the young Venetian composer, who, five years later, concluded his Opus 1 with a sonata based on this “exuberance” or “madness”, as the Italians called the dance at the time. But whereas Corelli’s version was written for a solo voice with continuo, Vivaldi composed his in a trio setting, with two melodic instruments and continuo. The focus is thus on the virtuosic interplay between the two solo violins, though the bass line often joins in with brilliant imitative passages. Even today, the Follia has lost none of its wild abandon, fitting perfectly into a program where epochs not only meet but break through their boundaries, sometimes sounding just a little wild. Like the seasons, the Follia returns time and again, and within this continuity, there is undoubtedly room for the unexpected and the extravagant, be it a summer storm or tempestuous string passages.
Silvio Badolato
SILVAN DEZINI
The young Swiss violinist Silvan Dezini grew up in Spreitenbach and began playing the violin at the age of seven. He has won multiple first prizes with distinction at competitions, paving the way for numerous solo performances both in Switzerland and abroad, including with the Bavarian Philharmonic and the Franz Schmidt Chamber Orchestra. Dezini also looks back on several concerts alongside the renowned violinist Sebastian Bohren and has performed with the Aargau-based ensemble Chaarts. He has attended masterclasses with distinguished professors such as Igor Ozim, Ana Chumachenko, and Ingolf Turban.
After completing his bachelor’s degree in Classical Music at the Zurich University of the Arts under Andreas Janke, Dezini is now pursuing a master’s in Classical Music Pedagogy at the Bern Academy of the Arts, studying with Bartek Niziol. He performs on a violin crafted by the Milanese Grancino family of luthiers, sourced from a private Swiss collection. Dezini also serves as the artistic director of the Ostinato concert series in the canton of Aargau.
FABIAN MÜLLER
Fabian Müller’s (*1964) works have been premiered by musicians such as David Zinman, Andris Nelsons, Christopher Hogwood, Steven Isserlis, Dame Evelyn Glennie, and Henning Kraggerud, and have been performed in renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Elbphilharmonie, Tonhalle Zürich, and Teatro Colón. He has written commissioned works for, among others, the Lucerne Festival, the Interlaken Music Festival, Cully Classique, and the Vestfold Festspillene.
His opera EIGER (2021/22) was enthusiastically acclaimed by audiences and critics. His family opera Heidi und das Weihnachtswunder (2022/23) also enjoyed great success. Recordings with orchestras such as the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra document his extensive work. In 2024, he was nominated for the OPUS Klassik award in the “Composer of the Year” category. In 2016, he was awarded a “Swiss Music Prize”. In addition to composition and leading festivals (TWICF, Confluence Musikfest), he is also dedicated to folk music: he spent ten years working on the publication of the Hanny Christen Collection.
OSTINATO ENSEMBLE
Sebastian Bohren, Violine 1
Yumiko Huguenin-Dumittan, Violine 2
Markus Fleck, Viola
Andreas Fleck, Violoncello
Catalina Paredes, Kontrabass
Reymond Huguenin-Dumittan, Theorbe
Naoko Matsumoto, Cembalo
Return to the album | Read the booklet | Composer(s): Antonio Vivaldi | Main Artist: Silvan Dezini
