Beating the Heat with Vivaldi's Summer (Four Seasons)
III. Presto

Instruments for an Indoor Hurricane

When you listen to III. Presto from my Summer (Four Seasons), the best approach is to follow how the whole ensemble works as one giant weather machine. I use the same group as before, with a solo violin leading two violin parts, a viola, and a basso continuo of cello and harpsichord or organ. Instead of playing a gentle character this time, the solo violin joins the other strings to throw rapid notes around like sheets of driving rain. If you focus on how they pass these fast cascades back and forth, you can practically see the lightning flashing across the room.

No Time to Grab an Umbrella

I named this final movement III. Presto because the word simply tells the players to play very fast, as if they are running for shelter. In the score, you will also often see the subtitle Tempo impetuoso d'estate, which makes it clear that we are dealing with a furious summer storm. After two movements of waiting under a heavy sky, the tempest that our poor shepherd feared finally breaks loose with full force. A polite, moderate pace would never do justice to a downpour that flattens the ripe grain in the fields.

A Revolving Door of Thunder

To keep all this chaos from turning into a shapeless mess, I built III. Presto in a driving ritornello form in a quick three-beat meter. Think of ritornello form as a sturdy musical chorus where the full orchestra plays a main stormy theme that keeps coming back between solo adventures. Each time the solo violin steps out on its own, it shows you a fresh angle of the gale before the whole group crashes back in. Let us walk through these main sections together so you can hear how I turn a musical structure into a wild weather report.

Section 1: The Sky Falls Down

I kick off the first section in the home key of G minor with the entire orchestra playing rapid descending scales and shivering tremolos. Everyone plays together right from the start, creating a wall of sound that hits you like the first icy gust of wind before a cloudburst. The notes tumble downward so quickly that they sound like heavy hailstones pelting the rooftops and knocking down the crops. By the time this opening blast finishes, there is no doubt left in anyone's mind that the afternoon picnic is officially ruined.

Section 2: Violin Gymnastics in the Rain

Once the opening thunder settles for a moment, I hand the spotlight over to the solo violin for a breathtaking display of string crossings. The soloist leaps rapidly between different strings, which looks and sounds like forked lightning zig-zagging across a dark sky. Every now and then, the orchestra jumps back in with fragments of the main theme to remind you that the wind is still howling. As the music shifts through different keys, the mood stays fierce and relentless, giving the player barely a second to catch a breath.

Section 3: One Last soaking

In the final stretch, I bring the music firmly back to G minor for one more furious dash by the full ensemble and the soloist together. The violins race up and down their instruments in frantic scales while the cello and keyboard anchor the storm from below. I keep the energy at a boiling point right up to the last measures, refusing to let the sun peek through the clouds for a happy ending. When the final chord strikes, the storm simply stops in its tracks, leaving the fields battered and the audience wide awake.

Put On Your Raincoat and Press Play

Now it is time for you to experience III. Presto for yourself, from the safety of a dry room. Go ahead and press play, and let the rushing strings sweep you straight into the middle of my eighteenth-century thunderstorm. As you listen, try to spot those alternating orchestral blasts and solo lightning bolts that we just talked about. I hope you find the ride through my finale every bit as exciting to hear as it was for me to put down on paper!