Sea, sand, sun... and ice? The finale of Vivaldi's Winter opens with small, careful steps out onto the ice. It doesn't last. Slip, fall, up, run, and the whole sheet gives way underneath. The opening of that third movement, live at The Tung Auditorium in Liverpool.

In 1610 Monteverdi published his Vespers & dedicated it to the Pope. 3 years later, Venice gave him the top job at St Mark's. Draw your own conclusions. Tomorrow we perform it at @gloucestercathedral.org.uk for @threechoirs.bsky.social, 7.30pm. Tickets: https://3choirs.org/events/monteverdi-vespers/

No, the new album has nothing to do with Satanism (we've had the email). Why Hell's Angels, then? Two duelling violinists in 1728, a rejected title, & some actual bikers in Gloucester. Adrian explains all. Coming soon on Signum Classics.

When you're a Venetian nobleman, you can afford to take a few financial risks. Marcello didn't take just one here, but two. This piece comes from a collection for cello or viola da gamba (the printed music allows either 😀). A bold choice for an Italian in the 1730s, by which time the viol had...

Winter is the Season nobody warns you about. Spring dances, Summer storms, but L'Inverno turns inward: a frozen Veneto in sound, and a hard look at what old age means. The last of the four, and the most personal. Adrian's own translation of the sonnet is now on our Patreon. #Vivaldi #FourSeasons

THE BIG Concert is coming. That's literally what "concerto grosso" means & the baroque era did big concerts properly. Picture a small band of soloists going head-to-head with a full ensemble: call & response, light & shade, drama built into the music itself. The 18thC answer to surround sound.

Just in time for the next heatwave, Winter is now live on Patreon! Vivaldi's L'Inverno is the last of the Four Seasons Concertos. Where Spring dances and Summer storms, Winter turns inward; literal depiction of a frozen Veneto and a reflection on what it means to reach old age.

Questionable timing? Perhaps. But hear us out. This is the 2nd movement of Winter, where Vivaldi's sonnet tells us to sit contentedly by the hearth while everyone else gets soaked in the rain outside. Swap the hearth for a fan and the rain for a 30-degree heatwave, and it's practically topical.

Dropping Vivaldi's Winter in the middle of a heatwave here in the UK felt... unkind. So we've waited for the weather to come to its senses, and our next Patreon video lands next week ❄️ Which means there's still time to sign up and catch up with Spring, Summer, Autumn and Adrian's very first Q&A.

Out today! 💿 The first single from our upcoming album, Hell's Angels 🏍️ This is the opening of the finale of Vivaldi's Sonata in G major for violin, cello and continuo, RV 820; one of his earliest works.

Kettledrums, kettlebells. Tomato, tomahto if you're a timpanist in the 1740s. Most composers see a pair of timpani and think: lovely, that'll do. Christoph Graupner saw a pair of timpani and thought: more. His Sinfonia in F (GWV 566) hands a single player six kettledrums, and asks them to cover...

48ish hours of travel, one soaring gothic church, and a programme worth every mile. Huge thanks to Summerwinds Festival, Munster and Tabea Debus for bringing us to Münster to open the festival — Fasch, Heinichen, Montanari, Valentini and Vivaldi, with a Telemann encore for the road.

You asked, Adrian answered. In our first Q&A exclusively for Patreon, Ade sat down with Sarah to tackle all those burning questions you sent in. Like his favourite Vivaldi violin concerto. Or his favourite 35 🙄 Full Q&A on Patreon now 🎻

We think Ade's remembered where his passport is! 😉 We're off to Germany this week with the wonderful Tabea Debus for our first gig abroad in recent memory 😵💫 We'll be at the Apostelkirche in Münster this Friday (19 June, 8pm) for Summerwinds Münsterland – a programme of baroque splendore...

THE BIG CONCERT — London, Liverpool and Gloucester — followed by the recording sessions at Cedars Hall, Wells. Final-year undergraduates, postgraduates and recent leavers are all welcome. Bring two contrasting pieces, one of them Italianate, and fifteen minutes of your best.

Italian baroque music doesn't play itself. We're recruiting the players who can. La Serenissima's Emerging Artist Chairs are open for 2026. We're looking for period string players with real fire in the fingers. There's a chance for up to four players to join us for our autumn concerts...

Adrian makes all the editions we play from; working directly from source manuscripts, living with the composers’ intentions before a single bow is drawn. It's that same instinct that led him to produce his own translation of the L'Autunno sonnet because translating is itself an act of understanding

It's been a busy week or two for Ade. He's finalised the audio for an upcoming album (top secret for now — and not the one we mentioned in our newsletter this morning 😄), filmed the next batch of Patreon content, and squeezed in a rehearsal for our upcoming concerts.

The opening ritornello of L'Autunno's final movement is pure organised chaos; the hunters stirring before first light, the dogs, the guns, the noise and excitement of a chase about to begin. Vivaldi doesn't ease you in. But we can: full performance on Patreon 🙃

Swipe to read the sonnet Vivaldi wrote to accompany L'Autunno in the original Italian alongside an English translation. Three distinct worlds: the harvest celebration, the wine-heavy sleep that follows, and finally the hunt: ending with the wounded creature, struggling to flee before it is overcome.

THE BIG CONCERT is coming to Liverpool 🥳 We can't wait to be back at The Tung Auditorium in October with our next project, THE BIG CONCERT: Italian baroque concerti grossi 🎻🎻🎻🎻 Well, mostly Italian. We let one Englishman in, as he did title his concerto "alla Venetiana" 🇮🇹

You say Chalamet, we say chalumeau. Before the clarinet stole the spotlight, this little single-reed instrument was the star of the baroque era. Swipe through to find out more!

You probably already know Vivaldi was nicknamed ‘the Red Priest’ owing to his magnificent ginger curls and profession. As a priest how was he so familiar with the stages of drunkenness he vividly depicts in Autumn? Inspiration was likely drawn from his immediate family. Receipts on Patreon

What began as wholesome, folk dancing becomes increasingly less decorous. By bar 33 Vivaldi’s indication is simply "the drunks." Without a doubt, it is the solo violinist who is the ringleader, with Vivaldi’s imagination providing a brilliantly executed rendition of drunken behaviour.

Vivaldi was an ordained priest. He was also a man of his time; steeped in classical mythology, ancient allegory, and the kind of folk wisdom that predated the Enlightenment's tidying-up operation. He would never have admitted to reading his horoscope. He would have read it.

After the drama and dread of Summer, L'Autunno arrives like a collective exhale. Vivaldi sets it in F major (a key long associated with hunting horns) and the opening ritornello carries all the weight-lifted, unguarded joy of a community that has made it through. Find more on Patreon.

"a pair of horns (imitated brilliantly by the solo violinist) burst forth from the general mêlée calling everyone to join in the pursuit." Our latest Patreon video 🥳 If you're already a supporter now's the time to submit your Qs for our A(drian)