The Cape Symphony Orchestra presents Nature's Song: Vivaldi's The Four Seasons at the Barnstable Performing Arts Center on April 11, 2026 at 4:00 PM and April 12, 2026 at 3:00 PM.
Ticketholders are invited to a discussion of the concert program led by Assistant Conductor Joseph Marchio one hour before each performance.

Download a printable version of these Program Notes.

THE CAPE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Guest Conductor, Harpsichord
Avi Stein

Soloist
Jae Cosmos Lee, Violin

CONCERT PROGRAM

JEAN SIBELIUS (1865-1957)
The Swan of Tuonela (Tuonelan joutsen)

OTTORINO RESPIGHI (1879-1936)
Gli uccelli, P.154 (The Birds)
Prelludio (Prelude)
La colomba (The Dove)
La gallina (The Hen)
L'usignolo (The Nightingale)
Il cuccù (The Cuckoo)

EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA (1928-2016)
Cantus arcticus - Concerto for Birds and Orchestra
The Bog
Melancholy
Swans Migrating

Intermission (20 minutes)

ANTONIO VIVALDI (1678-1741)
Le Quattro Stagioni, Op. 8., Nos. 1-4 (The Four Seasons)

La primavera (Spring), RV 269
Allegro
Largo e pianissimo sempre
Allegro pastorale

L'estate (Summer), RV 315
Allegro non molto
Adagio e piano - Presto e forte
Presto

L'autunno (Autumn), RV 293
Allegro
Adagio molto
Allegro

L'inverno (Winter), RV 297
Allegro non molto
Largo
Allegro

ABOUT "NATURE'S SONG: VIVALDI'S THE FOUR SEASONS"

“I’ve always wanted to put together a program of sounds that mimic and describe nature,” says Cape Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster Jae Cosmos Lee. “Nature’s Song” is the result, evoking nature as heard, imagined, and remembered across centuries, geographies, and musical languages, with “two pieces by Finnish composers across 60 years, and two Italians 200 years apart.”

For these composers, nature is not a backdrop, but a partner. Sibelius conjures myth in misty water; Respighi animates fluttering forms; Rautavaara lets the landscape shine on its own terms; and Vivaldi turns observation into narrative. Birds, at once familiar and mysterious, are central to all. “You’ll hear bird sounds in the concert hall, and then outside, you’ll keep hearing bird sounds,” says Jae. “If music can draw attention to the natural world, I’ve done my job.”

Each of these works invites us to listen outward to the living world, and in turn, to sharpen our listening within.

The Orchestra opens with The Swan of Tuonela. Composed by Jean Sibelius in 1895 as part of his Lemminkäinen Suite, this single-movement tone poem draws on the Kalevala, Finland’s national epic, in which a sacred swan guides departed souls to the realm of the dead. “This is a gorgeous piece—you can almost see from the music how beautiful the swan is,” says Jae.

The English horn—in fact neither English nor a horn, but a deeper-voiced cousin of the oboe— sounds the mythical swan with emotional weight, in a famous solo performed today by Cape Symphony’s Laura Pardee Schaefer. “Many composers use oboe and English horn to represent poignancy or emotional pain,” says Laura. “Sibelius needed that voice of stark loneliness that is also still so graceful, beautiful and warm… there’s a round warm sound, sort of in contrast to the cool tones of that misty inky river.” “The haunting, broody melody… it’s like a full moon when something terrible is about to happen,” adds Jae. It’s as if time itself has slowed.

Ottorino Respighi’s The Birds (1928) reimagines Baroque works through a modern orchestral lens. The suite opens with a brief Prelude that introduces the work’s bright elegance. Each subsequent movement portrays a specific bird: The Dove, with its pastoral presence and soft cooing; The Hen, with short pecking rhythms capturing restless movement and comic fuss; The Nightingale, evoking delicate song at twilight; and The Cuckoo, with its playful and precise interval calls.

Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Cantus Arcticus, subtitled “Concerto for Birds and Orchestra,” is one of his most popular works. It was commissioned by Oulu University and premiered at their first doctoral conferment ceremony in 1972.

With recorded birdsong placed alongside the live orchestra (Rautavaara himself made the recordings in Finland’s northern marshland), this piece blurs the boundary between the natural world and the concert hall. The birds are soloists. The work has three movements: The Bog features wind instruments echoing the recorded calls for a layered soundscape; Melancholy turns the mood inward and slow-moving; and Swans Migrating delivers a broad finale, culminating in a passage of striking stillness as the sounds recede.

Intermission

Your Cape Symphony Orchestra will now perform some of the most popular and instantly recognizable music of all time: Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. Guest conductor Avi Stein will lead the orchestra from the harpsichord with concertmaster Jae Cosmos Lee as violin soloist. “It’s a lot of lifting to lead the orchestra unconducted,” says Jae. “It should be a lot of fun!”

Published in 1725, The Four Seasons pairs violin concerti with sonnets, possibly also by Vivaldi. It is among the earliest examples of program music (instrumental music intended to evoke something extra-musical).

Each concerto follows a three-movement, fast–slow–fast pattern:

Spring (La primavera)
Allegro
Springtime is upon us.
The birds celebrate her return with festive song,
and murmuring streams are softly caressed by the breezes.
Thunderstorms, those heralds of Spring, roar, casting their dark mantle over heaven,
Then they die away to silence, and the birds take up their charming songs once more.

Largo e pianissimo sempre
On the flower-strewn meadow, with leafy branches rustling overhead,
the goat-herd sleeps, his faithful dog beside him.

Allegro pastorale
Led by the festive sound of rustic bagpipes,
nymphs and shepherds lightly dance beneath the brilliant canopy of spring.

Summer (L’estate)
Allegro non molto
Beneath the blazing sun's relentless heat, men and flocks are sweltering, pines are scorched.
We hear the cuckoo's voice; then sweet songs of the turtledove and finch are heard.
Soft breezes stir the air, but threatening north wind sweeps them suddenly aside.
The shepherd trembles, fearing violent storms and what may lie ahead.

Adagio e piano – Presto e forte
The fear of lightning and fierce thunder rob his tired limbs of rest,
as gnats and flies buzz furiously around.

Presto
Alas, his fears were justified; the heavens roar
and great hailstones beat down upon the grain.

Autumn (L’autunno)
Allegro
The peasant celebrates with song and dance the harvest safely gathered in.
The cup of Bacchus flows freely, and many end their revelry in sleep.

Adagio molto
The singing and the dancing die away as cooling breezes fan the pleasant air,
inviting all to sleep without a care.

Allegro
The hunters emerge at dawn, ready for the chase,
with horns and dogs and cries.
Their quarry flees while they give chase.
Terrified and wounded, the prey struggles on, but, harried, dies.

Winter (L’inverno)
Allegro non molto
Shivering, frozen mid the frosty snow in biting, stinging winds;
running to and fro to stamp one's icy feet, teeth chattering in the bitter chill.

Largo
To rest contentedly beside the hearth, while the rain pours down outside.

Allegro
We tread the icy path slowly and cautiously, for fear of tripping and falling.
Then turn abruptly, slip, crash on the ground and, rising, hasten on across the ice lest it cracks up.
We feel the chill north winds course through the house despite the locked and bolted doors…
this is winter, which nonetheless brings its own delights.

Thank you for attending today’s concert.  We hope you enjoyed it and that we’ll see you again soon. 

BEHIND THE SCENES

PRODUCTION TEAM

Director of Operations
Patrick Gallagher

Stage Manager
Kimberly Monteiro

Assistant Stage Manager
Brendan Gallagher

Stage Crew
Jay Ivanof
John Bishop

Audio Engineer
Jay Sheehan

Lighting Designer
Kendra Murphy

ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR
Joseph Marchio

BOX OFFICE
Rebeka Broitman, Supervisor
Charlotte Baxter
Eleanor Fothergill

HOSPITALITY COORDINATOR
Charlotte Baxter

LIBRARIAN
Victoria Krukowski

MANAGING ARTISTIC PRINCIPAL
Jae Cosmos Lee

PERSONNEL MANAGER
Wesley Hopper

USHER SUPERVISOR
Betty Morse

Cape Arts & Entertainment Staff and Board of Trustees

The Cape Symphony Orchestra’s Masterpiece series concerts are sponsored by Cape Cod 5.
 

SUPPORT YOUR CAPE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Ticket sales cover only part of the cost to maintain a professional orchestra on Cape Cod. Generous donations and community support make the difference.

Donating is easy, online at www.capesymphony.org/donations or by mail to Cape Symphony, 2235 Iyannough Road, West Barnstable, MA 02668. For more information about ways to support Cape Symphony, please contact Director of Development This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Thank you!

Program Notes by This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. References include: baroquemusic.org; classical-music.com; Classical Music: The Rough Guide; Encyclopedia Brittanica;  J.C. Lee, pers. comm; L. Pardee Schaefer, pers. comm.