Vivaldis Four Seasons, Concerts at St. Charles Church in Vienna

Concert & Orchestra

The Church of St. Charles is one of the most impressive buildings in Vienna. It is a vibrant center of historical performances of Mozart, Vivaldi and Ave Maria with the ORCHESTRA1756 on period instruments. Every week from Tuesday to Saturday we will play in the St. Charles Church with exceptional soloists, choir and orchestra. Visiting our concerts will not only be an remarkable experience for you - you will also directly support the important work of the ORCHESTRA 1756.

VIVALDI - The Four Seasons

The St. Charles Church was finished in 1737. Three years later the Venetian priest and composer Antonio Vivaldi moved to Vienna and it is said that he visited this brand new extraordinary sacral building. As nowaday one is still attracted by its architecture, to people of the 18th century the Charles Church must have appeared as strange and exceptionally unique. Vivaldi died in Vienna on July 28th 1741. He was buried just a few meters from Charles Church at “Spitaler God's Acre“. Today there is the building of the Technical University and just a small sign on it reminds us of Vivaldi. The grave and the bones are - like Mozart's - missing. Only a few years before Vivaldi moved to Vienna he composed his most famous work: the “Four Seasons“ - a compilation of four revolutionary concerts for solo violin and string orchestra. Four poems (maybe written by Vivaldi) are the image of the composition which shows us furious thunder storms and flashes, breaking ice and twittering of birds, sleeping shepherds, barking dogs, a band of hunters and many spectacular impressions more...

Seating

Category 1 - Best available Seats at the time of your booking will be assigned to you. You will get your seat numbers at the entrance to the Concert

Category 2 and 3 - Free seating within the booked category.

Venue

In 1713 - one year after the last great plague epidemic - Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, pledged to build a church for his namesake patron saint Charles Borromeo, who was revered as a healer for plague sufferers. An architectural competition was announced in which Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach prevailed over Ferdinando Galli-Bibiena and Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt (among others). The construction began in 1716. After J.B. Fischer's death in 1723 his son Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach completed the construction in 1737 using partially altered plans. Originally the church had a direct line of sight to the Hofburg and was also - until 1918 - the imperial patron parish church.

Program Vivaldis Four Seasons

Antonio Vivaldi (1678, Venice - 1741, Vienna)

• Aria "Amoroso ai rai del sole"
• Concerto I "la primavera" (Spring) op.8 No.1


• Aria "Ah che infelice sempre"
• Concerto II "l´estate" (Summer) op.8 No.2


• Aria "Zeffiretto che scorre"
• Concerto III "L´Autunno" (Autumn) op.8 No.3


• Aria "Gelido in ogni vena" aus der Oper "Farnace"
• Concerto IV "L´Inverno" (Winter) op. 8 No.4

(Program is Subject to Changes)