CAMA's Centennial Season—December 11, 2018—Free Community Concert—Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra—Avi Avital, mandolin—The Granada Theatre, 8:00 PM

Patricia, who’s played The Four Seasons for
LACO seven times during her 42-year tenure
with the Orchestra, is “mainly a SoCal girl,”
but she did live in a small Colorado town for
three years, so she knows her traditional seasons.
She remembers sledding, ice skating
and making “snowpeople.” In the spring she
watched for bird nests.
“I felt a thrill when the eggs hatched, seeing
the birds learn to fly,” she says. “It was
bittersweet when they finally flew away. The
changes of seasons in rural Colorado created
an indelible impression of how the cycles of
life are always present.”
Many artists throughout history have felt
the same way. In the four violin concerti that
make up Vivaldi’s piece, the composer offers
narrative elements inspired by seasonal
changes around him: rushing streams, buzzing
insects, singing birds, drunken dancers,
thundering storms, a dog barking while his
goatherd master sleeps. Painters, composers,
choreographers, poets, filmmakers and
other artists have long been intrigued with
the theme of the four seasons, and not just
in the literal sense of green shoots breaking
through the soil or leaves turning a golden
brown.
From a biological and cultural standpoint,
the idea of the seasons is a powerful influence,
even for people who don’t live in climates that
offer the “traditional” lineup of fall colors and
white Christmases. In a more contemplative
sense, the seasons at their most fundamental
can symbolize the circular nature of life: from
birth to death. That’s often what draws artists
to the theme, from Nicolas Poussin to David
Hockney and Jasper Johns.
Johns’ set of four intaglio prints, The Seasons
(Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter), was part
of a recent retrospective of the artist’s work,
Something Resembling Truth, at The Broad
museum in downtown Los Angeles.
Mantua is a city in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the province of the same name.
The engraving shows a bird’s-eye view of a city in the middle of a lake. It also the city
where Vivaldi composed the Four Seasons.
The four panels, painted in 1985-86, are
filled with seasonal symbols and art history
allusions. You can find the obvious (a snowman
in Winter) to the more subtle (in Summer,
look closely at the American flag, which
is a famous subject
for Johns, because
it only has 48 stars).
Sprinkled through the
works are seahorses,
recurring allusions to
Picasso, streaks of
rain, and, in each one, a
branch with blossoms,
leaves, or no growth at
all, depending on the
season. Johns puts his
own figure into each
of the four paintings,
an
touch.
autobiographical
14 CENTENNIAL SEASON CELEBRATION