Sentimental Work: Adrian Chandler on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons

I was ten years old when I heard the whole of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons for the first time. I’d started learning the violin two years earlier, and I’d already had a go at playing the composer’s A minor Concerto op.3 no.6 and liked it. So at Christmastime I noticed BBC Radio 3 was airing a concert by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields…