Vivaldi considered the key of C sharp minor to be highly expressive, and uses it again in his middle movement to depict the sleeping shepherd, and in the final movement of Spring, at bar 20. In the third episode of Spring the composer modulates from the dominant key of B major, (introduced in the second episode) to the more ominous key of C sharp minor to depict the approaching storm. The composer reinforces the tonic and dominant harmony in the opening of this movement, alongside a motif formed by perfect fifths to depicts the hunters going out at daybreak with their horns, guns and dogs. This static harmony is a compositional technique that is also used in the opening movement of Autumn, where the static harmony is based around the key F major the key of the hunting horn. As the principle violin plays a solo section to depict the birds greeting spring in episode one at bar 14, Vivaldi uses static harmony in E major to create the sense that everything has stopped to listen to spring's arrival. The basso continuo plays a tonic pedal to reinforce tonic and dominant harmony, typical of the Baroque concerto. The Siciliana variation (7’00”) is especially refreshing.The opening of the Spring concerto depicts the arrival of this joyous season through the bright key of E major. In the opening track of the album, “La Follia,” one never tires of hearing variations on the same sixteen-bar phrase, Schayegh imbuing each with a new mood. In the Largos and Adagios, her embellishments are expressive and sit comfortably among a longstanding Baroque tradition.
Short, fast quarter notes vibrate with appropriately subtle vibrato. In the allegros, Schayegh’s phrases are long and not interrupted by the demands of the bow or position shifts. A Baroque specialist who studied, along with the rest of Musica Fiorita’s musicians, at the Schola Cantorum in Basel, Switzerland, her playing is remarkably smooth and inventive.
Schayegh’s playing deserves quite a bit of praise as well. The autumnal hunt (track 10) is the perfect balance of jaunty and refined, which is to say, the ensemble has perfectly balanced staccato and legato attacks. The eighth rests in the first movement (track 5) feel like eternities, as if the heat is so oppressive that the group can barely bring themselves to play the next pair of notes, and the ensuing thunderstorm (track 7) is no less convincing. The group’s Summer is one of the most languorous available, as they imagine themselves out of breath and exhausted.
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