While Vivaldi penned hundreds of concertos, he is most famous for the set of four grouped under the title Le quattro stagioni , or The Four Seasons. The work was popular in Europe throughout Vivaldi’s lifetime; as one critic wrote in 1740, “Who does not know the Four Seasons of Antonio Vivaldi?” Ironically, modern audiences didn’t—until the collection was revived during the 1960s. The Four Seasons presents a fascinating tension between the standard musical structure composers used during the Baroque era and Vivaldi’s creative instincts. All four concertos fulfill the basic requirements of the genre: they consist of three movements (fast—slow—fast) with ritornello (returning or repeating) sections for the orchestra and flashy solo passages. Sonnets published with each concerto drive the musical content, however. While it is unknown whether Vivaldi wrote the sonnets before or after the music, each poem has a three-part structure that corresponds nicely with the fast-slow-fast concerto form.

In the second concerto, L’estate (Summer), the opening Allegro con moto (Energetic, with motion) begins amidst oppressive heat. A few birds manage to sing cautiously despite the blazing sun, yet their halting calls fill the shepherd with dread. The second movement, Adagio e piano—Presto e forte (Slow and soft—Fast and loud), depicts the shepherd’s growing awareness that a violent storm is approaching. The storm arrives in the concluding Presto, with thunder, lightning, and violent hailstorms that flatten the ripened corn.

While Vivaldi penned hundreds of concertos, he is most famous for the set of four grouped under the title Le quattro stagioni , or The Four Seasons. The work was popular in Europe throughout Vivaldi’s lifetime; as one critic wrote in 1740, “Who does not know the Four Seasons of Antonio Vivaldi?” Ironically, modern audiences didn’t—until the collection was revived during the 1960s. The Four Seasons presents a fascinating tension between the standard musical structure composers used during the Baroque era and Vivaldi’s creative instincts. All four concertos fulfill the basic requirements of the genre: they consist of three movements (fast—slow—fast) with ritornello (returning or repeating) sections for the orchestra and flashy solo passages. Sonnets published with each concerto drive the musical content, however. While it is unknown whether Vivaldi wrote the sonnets before or after the music, each poem has a three-part structure that corresponds nicely with the fast-slow-fast concerto form.

La primavera (Spring) is the first of the four concertos. An opening Allegro announces the season’s arrival with twittering birds and murmuring streams. A thunderstorm briefly interrupts the tranquility, but peace is soon restored. A goatherd sleeps beside his faithful dog in the Largo, while rustic bagpipes, nymphs, and shepherds dance in the concluding Allegro.

In 18th- and 19th-century operas, the overture was sometimes an afterthought—perhaps because audience members weren't always expected to be listening—while at other times, it was an integral part of establishing the mood. Mozart's overture to Don Giovanni, composed in 1787, is an excellent example of both. While reveling with friends the night before the opera's first performance, one of Mozart's companions turned to him and remarked, “Tomorrow the first performance of Don Giovanni will take place, and you have not yet composed the overture!" Mozart returned to his room and began writing the work around midnight, while his wife Constanze told stories to keep him awake. By 3:00 am, the overture was finished, and the copyists completed the parts just in time for the opera's opening. The orchestra played brilliantly from pages still wet with ink and without rehearsal. As the curtain rose, Mozart reportedly whispered, "Some notes fell under the stands. But it went well." While Mozart didn't lavish his attention upon the overture, the work cleverly sets the stage. Mozart uses the final banquet scene, at which the statue menacingly appears, as the slow introduction, almost as a reminder that the opera is about Don Giovanni's demise. At the same time, the lighthearted Allegro characterizes the sybaritic, pleasure-seeking Don.

First performed in 1787, Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 86 is one of the “Paris” symphonies commissioned at the end of 1784 or the beginning of 1785 by Count Claude-François-Marie Rigoley d’Ogny. D’Ogny ran a fashionable concert series known as the Concert de la loge Olympique (Concert of the Olympic Lodge), connected to the secret society of the Freemasons. The orchestra of the Loge Olympique was huge for its day, featuring 40 violins, ten double basses, and doubled woodwinds, and its audience included Marie Antoinette and her ladies-in-waiting. The musicians dressed accordingly, wearing sky-blue brocaded coats, lace ruffles, and swords. The “Paris” symphonies were extremely well-received; a Mercure de France critic particularly praised "this vast genius … very different from those sterile composers who pass continually from one idea to another for lack of knowing how to present one idea in varied forms.”

Many consider the Symphony No. 86 the best of the “Paris” Symphonies. While Haydn scored the works for strings, one flute, and pairs of oboes, bassoons, and horns, Nos. 82 and 86 also feature timpani and trumpets. This expanded scoring contributes to the work’s intensity. Featuring the usual four movements, the third movement—a Minuet with a lighthearted Trio that sounds like an Austrian ländler—sets up the Finale. Marked Allegro con sprito (Energetic, with spirit), the movement begins with quick, repeated eighth notes from which everything else proceeds. As the Mercure de France critic noted after the performance, Haydn’s genius with “the most rich and varied developments” from simple beginnings is seemingly endless.