This winter has been one to remember in Boston, but it looks like it's finally tapering away. In memory of the many fallen records from the season, here's a collection of winter- and snow-inspired music over the past few centuries.
1720: Vivaldi's Winter, the Fourth of his Four Seasons concerti, performed by Gli Incogniti, Amandine Beyer soloist:
1828: Schubert's haunting song cycle Winterreise, a tale of a man's winter journey as Schubert himself reached the end of his brief life, here performed by the inimitable Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau:
Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 1, subtitled Winter Daydreams, here performed by the Royal Concertgebouw:
And finally, a more modern strain: the 3rd of Chaya Czernowin's Winter Songs, an icy, tenebrous cycle that she describes as "reflect[ing] the aspect of winter which is about being pulled into the inner cave… At the same time, underneath, in the ground, the roots of life slowly grow stiff and blindly start to search for a path between the stones.” This performance is by Ensemble Nikel and Quatuor Diotima: