Vivaldi Four Seasons Baroque Concert Tickets in Central Rome

Vivaldi's Four Seasons, a baroque masterpiece

Antonio Vivaldi, born in Venice in 1678, published The Four Seasons in 1725 as four violin concertos, each in three movements and each connected to a sonnet describing its season. Few baroque works describe nature in such precise pictorial detail: birdsong in Spring, summer storms, a peasant dance and a hunt in Autumn, and chattering teeth and falling rain in Winter.

The baroque age was fascinated by the changing forces of nature, and Rome, the city of Bernini, was one of its great centres. If you are looking for a Vivaldi Four Seasons concert in Rome, this programme lets you hear the music in a city whose art expresses the same drama and movement.

The performers and the instruments

The concert features a violin soloist who also acts as conductor, a string quintet and a harpsichord. The harpsichord plays the continuo, the steady harmonic backbone of baroque music, so you hear the sound that Vivaldi's audiences would have known.

A small ensemble keeps the sound clear and close, and it lets you see each musician at work. The programme also includes a concerto for strings, and it is performed as a complete cycle in four concertos, with Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter each having its own character. Because the concert is in a church, the natural echo of the walls adds warmth to the violin and strings and gives the slow movements extra weight.

The venue on Via XX Settembre

The concert takes place in a church on Via XX Settembre, a wide street named after the date, 20 September 1870, when Italian troops entered Rome through Porta Pia. The street is lined with government buildings and churches and is a short walk from Piazza della Repubblica and Termini station.

Seats are not numbered, and customers sit on a first come, first served basis, so arrive in good time if you want a particular area. The options are called central, exclusive and VIP tickets, and the booking panel shows what each option offers.

Planning your evening near Porta Pia

The concert lasts about 80 minutes, so it fits easily between a late-afternoon visit and dinner. Nearby you can see Porta Pia, designed by Michelangelo, the Baths of Diocletian and the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, which holds Bernini's Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. Metro lines A and B at Repubblica and Termini make the area easy to reach.

Check the start times in the booking panel, because they change by date. Evening is the best time to enjoy the concert, followed by a walk through the quiet streets around the Quirinal hill.