A SCOTTISH folk interpretation of a Vivaldi classic is being released to mark the 300th anniversary of the original work.
Each track depicts an aspect of Scotland’s seasons and is accompanied by a poem written by fiddle player, composer and singer Isla Ratcliff.
There is also a bonus track at the end of the album, Four Seasons In One Day, a playful nod to how many people in Scotland affectionately refer to the vagaries of the Scottish climate.
Vivaldi’s original Four Seasons was composed for violin, string orchestra and harpsichord, and here they are reinterpreted by a stellar cast of Scottish traditional musicians including Kristan Harvey of Blazin’ Fiddles and Megan Henderson of Breabach.
Featuring Ratcliff on fiddle, accompanied by string ensemble and piano, this contemporary arrangement is intended to highlight the dance-like nature of Vivaldi’s music and also reflect on how Scotland’s seasons and climate have changed in the past 300 years.
She said she was “very excited” about the new album as she had always loved Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.
“I have taken Vivaldi’s famous melodies and made them sound Scottish, resulting in an album of lots of different moods in which each track tells a story – from the plants waking up and the lambs playing in spring, to the frenzy of midges and the increasing heatwaves that we are experiencing in summer, to the joyful playing with fallen leaves and the stags’ rut in autumn and lastly to Hogmanay cèilidhs and the diminishing snowfall that we are experiencing in winter,” Ratcliff said.
“I also really enjoyed writing poems to accompany each track, many of which are influenced by Scottish writers including Lady Nairne, Lady John Scott, Robert Burns, Nan Shepherd and Iain Crichton Smith.”
Ratcliff, from Edinburgh, was a semi-finalist in the BBC Young Traditional Musician of the Year 2022 competition and nominated for Up and Coming Artist of the Year 2022 at the MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards.
Her work is underpinned by her interests in tradition, community, cultural politics, the environment and music’s positive impact on wellbeing.
She has performed across Scotland, the UK and Europe, including at Celtic Connections, the BBC Proms and festivals in France, Germany and Denmark.
The Scottish Four Seasons was produced by musician and broadcaster Anna Massie, recorded and mixed by Stuart Hamilton in Castlesound Studios, and mastered by Sam Proctor at Lismore Mastering.
It will be released on November 14 on streaming sites and CD, with the single Autumn Leaves (Autumn 1) released this Friday.
