‘Tis the Four Seasons

CAMA’s latest international concert at the Granada was La Serenìssima at its best with mandolin virtuoso Avi Avital conducting San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Grammy-winning soprano Esteli Gomez interspersing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with gondola songs.

It was also the 300th anniversary of Vivaldi’s enduringly popular Baroque masterpiece which I last heard on a misty New Year’s Eve in Venice at the Santa Maria della Pieta where the composer was a violin teacher and concert master.

The orchestra concluded the hugely entertaining evening with its encore, “La Biondina in Gondoleta,” a Venetian traditional barcarolle featuring Gomez.