This 6-pillar curriculum teaches the basic literacy we need to be personally and financially successful and to do so in a manner in which together we evolve a culture that supports the emergence of an advanced human civilization.
What a hot and sunny summer it’s been so far, one that Antonio Vivaldi would have experienced in his native Italy. “Summer” is the second of the Four Seasons concertos that Vivaldi published in 1723. Each of them is an example of “program music”—a composition that depicts a narrative—in this case a season and its moods. The concertos were originally published with a sonnet each, possibly written by Vivaldi himself, describing the scene being portrayed.
“Summer” is the most turbulent of the four pieces. The opening portrays the oppressive heat, which then leads to the bee-buzzing and exhausted air of a hot summer afternoon, finally erupting into a short-lived but furious storm. It is that third movement—all thunder, hail, and lashing winds—that most people know, and it’s the one played most dramatically by Alexander Hrustevich in this outstanding and momentous performance.
Vivaldi wrote for a solo violin over a small string ensemble; Hrustevich plays the whole thing, essentially alone, on a bayan—a Russian button accordion—with no orchestra behind him at all. The player has to whip up the musical storm on a single instrument, using its two independent keyboards (buttons on the left for bass and chords, and melody on the right) while simultaneously controlling dynamics with the bellows. He is effectively playing several moving lines at once, and sometimes faster than a typical orchestral performance.
Hrustevich is a Ukrainian bayan virtuoso who started on the instrument as a young child and has built a career as a classical interpreter on this totally underrated instrument. This particular performance was filmed in Vilnius in 2013 and has since been watched millions of times. It’s easy to see why.
