BBC Music January 2025

In fact, Vivaldi’s programmatic tribute to spring, summer, autumn and winter was just one of many successful works for the composer at the time of its publication 300 years ago. And, as Nicholas Kenyon explains in this month's main feature, the work languished in relative obscurity for much of its history, only really finding its audience in the 20th century as tastes, attention spans and a certain Nigel Kennedy provided the perfect confluence of events for its triumphant return.