Which Vivaldi Four Seasons CD to buy???

Me,3, with opalchip___ Back 'round 20 years ago public radio (kcet,in LA,I think) used to have a shoot-out every Sat.AM on different pieces. They would try 3,4 mins. of each movement;starting with 4/5/ versions.Drop one or two off. YUP,Bis 275 was the winner. Sat.back then you had to "run" to your local Tower;there was always a "run" on the winner. I most always made a cassette of their show. I think the jd's were Bonnie Brice and Tom Campbell. I remember he HATED just about anything on the Phillips label. He said he could hear Claudio Arrou's nails on the keyboard. I guess he was a audiophile??

I have a good many versions of this warhorse, and I've heard a good many more, but I think the best one ever recorded is the peerless 1970 Argo (Decca/London) version by Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, with Alan Loveday as the violin soloist.

I'm going to order one or two of the versions recommended here, and thanks guys. But I suspect that my favorite will continue to be the first one I ever owned, which is the English Chamber Orchestra on Philips. (I don' t have the details handy, but it dates from the 1970s.) To tell the truth, I really don't know if it's any good (perhaps not), I just know that after playing the bejesus out of it for years in the late 70s, it infiltrated my DNA and now would be hard to displace. For me, that version is definitive for tempo and emphasis. Ain't it so often true -- your first = your favorite = the best. :-)

Most courageous version - Canadian Brass! If you like the Brass Quintet sound, this is a really worthwhile listen. Someone named Arthur Frackenpohl was commissioned to transcribe this for 2 trumbets, French horn, Tuba, and Trombone - and he did a first rate job.

Not the one version to have if you're only having one, but a very refreshing take on a standard.

Hi, there is a plenty of interesting recording around. This is probably the most recorded piece of music. I would go for one of the following ones,: Harnoncourt, Teldec, or Parrott, Virgo Veritas, or Fabio Biondi. Harnoncourt version was probably the first to show that this music how likely was played on orginal instruments. It seems to me that Parrott even more paid attention to play the music as accompanying music for a poem about the four seasons, as an illustrative music. More "life" like effects in the music, more exalted texture. The most exalted, almost I would say in modern way expressionist or "fauve' using a style name borrowed from history of art, recoding of the Four seasons, however, is that of Fabio Biondi. None the less, that exalted version probably what is likely to fit most to Vivaldi's personality and the time. I would stay away 'older' more tradional recording, like that of Marriner, Zubin Mehta, Perlman,e tc which are nice but influenced by playing style of newer times.