The Four Seasons: L'autunno, op. 8 no. 3

L'autunno, the third of The Four Seasons, follows a sonnet about a village harvest: peasants celebrate with dancing and wine, sleep off the drink in the central Adagio molto, and set out at dawn for the hunt in the finale. Vivaldi marks the drunkards in the score by name, Ubriachi, and writes the slow movement as a near-motionless block of muted strings, the boldest stroke in the whole set. The hunting finale imitates horns, the flight of the game and the shot that ends it. The concerto is in F major.