The Four Seasons by Laurel Corona

Author:Laurel Corona
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781401395377
Publisher: Hachette Books

THE CONCERTO WAS DRAWING TO A CLOSE IN THE SWELTERING chapel when Vivaldi began the cadenza he had bragged to Maddalena about. It started routinely enough with a flight of quick notes, leading to a few bars of what sounded like a country jig. He played a short musical phrase, repeating it at increasingly higher pitches, going up and up and up, closer and closer to the bridge, turning his bow until the sounds were not those of a violin at all but of birds chirping in a tree. He reached over to the lowest string, adding a single syncopated hooting note before easing the violin back down, leading the rest of the orchestra into the exuberant closing bars.

“Did you like it?” he asked her afterward.

“I think I held my breath through the whole cadenza.”

“Good,” he said, closing his violin case and giving it a triumphant pat.

Maddalena was relieved he did not notice she hadn’t answered his question. The cadenza was less a thing of beauty than a challenge to the listener, more brilliant than pleasant. It rang in her ears for days.

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