Four Seasons – Four Opportunities for Photography.

by John Greenwood - August 2008

A week ago Janet and I flew to Wellington for a family event.  The flight was wonderful and as we approached the central mountains the Captain advised us that he would let us have a close look at them.  So he flew first of all across the north of Mount Tongariro so we could see that and Ngauruhoe.  Then he turned in between Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu.  Fortunately there was an empty seat across from us and so I was able to get good pictures from both positions.  A wonderful winter sight.

While we were there Janet suggested we go to see the movie “4” which was on at the Lighthouse Theatre in Petone.  I had heard about it and Janet was very keen, so off we went.  What a lovely experience!   The theatre is a boutique one with wide soft seats and the particular cinema we were in was very small.  Nice and comfortable.  Good for a cuddle in the dark!!

The movie is based on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Concerto, written in 1725.  It consists of four separate concertos, each with three movements.  Designed to be played by a solo violinist, it is only later that additional stringed instruments have been added to support the soloist.  Each of the four concertos is filmed and recorded in a different place with a different soloist and a different supporting string group. 

Spring: was in Tokyo with its cherry blossom festival.  The soloist was teaching a group of young budding musicians to play the music and was asking them to identify what is occurring in each movement.  This is interspersed with interviews with her and people out in the city enjoying the spring.  Cherry blossom time is BIG in Tokyo.  Heaps of Tokyo-ites go to the parks to picnic among the cherry trees.  Then the string group, led by the lead violinist, played the concerto.  Wonderful.

 The words describing this particular concerto are:

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

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

If you are not familiar with this well-known series of concertos, I recommend you borrow a copy from the library and enjoy it!

This was replicated for Summer in Australia, on Thursday Island, a small Island off the northern tip of Queensland, after a long train ride to get close to it.  Then Autumn in New York, a totally different style and finally the Winter in Finland, right up in Lapland at the northern tip of Finland.  Snow everywhere and the Laps going about their survival amidst all this.  Very picturesque.

Each of these sites had its own characteristics and the musicians attempted and succeeded in interpreting the compositions of Vivaldi to explain the characteristics of their place in the way the music of the concertos was expressed.

Tucked into all this was the most wonderful filming of the four places.  The interpretation of the camera operators added spice to the music and the scenery.  In particular, apart from the scenery, the filming of the musicians as they rehearsed and then played the concertos was breathtaking in the extreme. 

I particularly appreciated the close ups of the musicians playing – all of them made me wish I could have been there with my cameras to try to capture some of the intimacy that was being expressed in the close up images on the video.  The expressions of the lead musicians in particular as they put their whole bodies into expressing their interpretation of the music was stunning.

Sometimes something comes up to bite you as you watch it.  Certainly this movie did just that.  I cannot get the images out of my mind and will use them to stimulate my photographic senses while Janet and I travel over the next nine weeks.  Austria, Sweden, Norway, Britain to, among other things, to visit some of our photographic exchange clubs – three of them, then to Beijing to view the Great Wall and, finally, to Chengdu close to the area of the earthquake to visit our Daughter and Son-in-law.