Vivaldi Four Seasons concert in Rome

What you are booking

What you buy is a place at a performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons in the Basilica of San Nicola in Carcere, a medieval church on Via del Teatro di Marcello. Musica&Musica srl organises it, and the players are I Virtuosi dell'opera di Roma. Expect roughly 1.5 hours seated in a church. It is neither a museum visit nor a walk through the ancient temples beneath the floor. Dates are listed in the calendar, and the confirmation gives the start time for the one you pick. There is no dinner, no tour and no drinks service attached to the ticket.

The programme in two parts

The organiser lists two parts. The first holds well-known slow and sacred pieces for strings: Albinoni's Adagio in G minor, Schubert's Ave Maria, the chorale from Bach's Cantata BWV 147 known as Jesus bleibet meine Freude, Gounod's Ave Maria, Pachelbel's Canon and Bach's Aria on the Fourth String. The second part is the four concertos of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, all from his Op. 8. The organiser adds that the programme may be subject to change, so read the pieces as the plan and not as a promise. The named composers run from Albinoni and Pachelbel to Gounod, so the first half moves from the Baroque into the nineteenth century before Vivaldi takes over.

The players and the harpsichord

The organiser describes I Virtuosi dell'opera di Roma as an orchestra of professors from Italian conservatories that specialises in classical and opera music. For this cycle the ensemble is a string quintet with a harpsichord. A harpsichord is one of the chord-playing instruments that can form the continuo group, the bass line and chords that sit under the melody in Baroque music. In a band this small each line is easy to hear, which suits the busy, bright writing of the Four Seasons. The organiser says the orchestra's members are professors from the most prestigious Italian conservatories.

Where The Four Seasons come from

Vivaldi's Op. 8 is a set of twelve violin concertos issued in Amsterdam in 1725 under a title meaning The Contest Between Harmony and Invention. The first four are the seasonal ones. Wikipedia places their composition between about 1718 and 1723, in the years he led the Mantua court chapel. Each came with a sonnet, perhaps his own, naming the scenes the music paints, which is why the concert plays like a series of pictures as well as a showpiece for the soloist. According to Wikipedia, a performance of all four concertos takes about 40 to 43 minutes, so they fill roughly half of the evening.

The four concertos one by one

Spring opens with festive birdsong, murmuring streams and a thunderstorm that fades, and its slow movement has a sleeping goatherd with his barking dog in the violas. Summer is the heat of the sun, a cuckoo, a sudden north wind and a storm of hail. Autumn is a harvest dance, the drunkards falling asleep and a dawn hunt. Winter is icy snow and chattering teeth, a fire indoors while rain falls outside, and the careful steps of a walk on ice. The guide for beginners explains each in more detail.

Read next: Four Seasons explained for beginners

Why this church

San Nicola in Carcere stands on the site of the Forum Holitorium, the ancient vegetable market. It was built in and from the remains of three Roman temples, and their columns still show in its walls. Giacomo della Porta gave it its present façade in 1599. Inside, fourteen columns taken from ancient buildings divide the nave from the aisles, and they differ in material and size. The practical result is a concert room unlike a modern hall, with ancient columns along both sides of the nave. Turismo Roma lists a Guercino painting among the works inside, and Pope Pius IX restored the church in 1865.

Read next: San Nicola in Carcere history

What the ticket includes

Your ticket covers the performance and no more. Neither food nor drink may be taken into the nave, so eat first. The organiser asks for appropriate clothing because the building is an important basilica. Wheelchair access is listed, along with a small-group option. Booked through GetYourGuide, the place can be cancelled up to 24 hours before the performance for a full refund, and payment can wait until later. The underground temple remains are arranged separately. Because the booking widget on this site is GetYourGuide's own, the dates, fares and cancellation terms it shows are the ones that apply.

What guests describe

Guests praise the skilled musicians and the basilica setting, and many mention resonant acoustics and an intimate atmosphere. Some find the seating firm and the church warm on hot days, and say a fan would help. None of this changes what the ticket is: a seated concert of roughly ninety minutes in a medieval church, with no food or drink allowed inside, and a start time that your confirmation gives. Reviewers come from many countries, among them Australia, the United States, Norway and Spain.

Choosing a date and booking

In the booking calendar, pick the date and the number of adults and look at availability. The start time is on your confirmation, since this guide quotes no clock time. The concert is marked as likely to sell out, so evenings in busy months go first. Because the programme can change, pick the date for the evening itself and not for one piece. If you plan to walk through the Theatre of Marcellus area before or after the concert, leave a margin on both sides. Check availability for the number of adults you need before you decide, because the calendar shows what is open.

Read next: Walk by the Theatre of Marcellus

Four Seasons or a piano recital

Rome has other church concerts on a similar scale, and one is on the booking cards of this site: a Chopin piano concert by candlelight in a Waldensian church, about 50 minutes long, played by a pianist. That is a different evening, with one instrument, one composer and a shorter running time. The Vivaldi concert is longer, has a full string band and is built around one famous work. If you compare it with any other Four Seasons concert in Rome, check the name of the church, the length, the rest of the programme and who plays, because two concerts with the same title can differ on all four.

Who this isn't for

Skip this concert if you want a loud night, a dinner or a long programme. At about an hour and a half of sacred and Baroque string music it is calm and fairly traditional. Skip it too if you want to walk through the ancient temples under the church, because the ticket is for the concert only. Guests describe warm evenings and firm seating, so a small fan and a light layer for the stone interior are sensible. Anyone who wants to eat or drink during the music will be happier elsewhere. The ticket also does not cover the underground temple visits.