Piano Solo Arrangements of Vivaldi's Four Seasons (Le Quattro Stagioni)

Various Internet sources, various dates. — 326 p. With bookmarks.The PDF file contains various piano arrangements of Vivaldi's Four Seasons (Le quattro stagioni), available on the Internet.
The first 3 arrangements are complete in the sense that they include all 3 movements of all 4 violin concertos (Spring [RV 269], Summer [RV 315], Autumn (RV 293] and Winter RV 297). In the fourth arrangement, Winter is missing.
Apart form one complete arrangement (Autumn by Jim Paterson), the other arrangements include only certain parts (movements) of concertos.
The level of difficulty of the transcriptions varies from (very) easy to (very) advanced intermediate.From Wikipedia: The Four Seasons (Italian: Le quattro stagioni) is a group of four violin concerti by Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi, each of which gives a musical expression to a season of the year. They were written around 1721 and were published in 1725 in Amsterdam, together with eight additional violin concerti, as Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione ("The Contest Between Harmony and Invention").
The Four Seasons is the best known of Vivaldi's works. Unusual for the time, Vivaldi published the concerti with accompanying poems (possibly written by Vivaldi himself) that elucidated what it was about those seasons that his music was intended to evoke. It provides one of the earliest and most-detailed examples of what was later called program music—music with a narrative element.
Vivaldi took great pains to relate his music to the texts of the poems, translating the poetic lines themselves directly into the music on the page. In the middle section of the Spring concerto, where the goatherd sleeps, his barking dog can be marked in the viola section. Other natural occurrences are similarly evoked. Vivaldi separated each concerto into three movements, fast-slow-fast, and likewise each linked sonnet into three sections.
From the Preface of John Bird's transcription: Apart from some incomplete arrangements of select movements, and many recorded versions, there are two complete piano versions printed prior to this one. A recent one by Roberto Novegno, and an older one by Guido Farina published by Ricordi in 1956. Pierre Gouin’s organ arrangement also deserves acknowledgement for being a wonderful arrangement accurately representing Vivaldi’s work. Farina’s version is also a worthy attempt, but rewrites passages too often, often under-representing or over-shooting the pianists ability. Other solutions to logistical problems result in distasteful octave displacements and un-pianistic writing. This edition does not take such liberties nor make such detrimental sacrifices.
The Four Seasons have a lot of opportunity for failure as an arrangement. The autograph does not exist, and the two copies that do have some differences. The current full scores disagree on what one should play, and even my survey of around 50 of the major recordings are still divided, with up to five different versions for one passage. Most solutions have been settled with a majority ruling from the vast discography for this work, and often are not what our modern ears are used to tonally. This may be reason why there is such disparity in the first place. Overlapping string parts, with second violins sometimes higher than firsts, ornaments, stringed instrument articulation, are all traps other arrangers fall in, but in the present arrangement, much has been done to achieve the important balance between representing the original version, and still being a convincing and playable solo piano work...4 Complete transcriptions
John BirdLa primavera (Spring ) RV 269
Sonnet
La primavera: Allegro
La primavera: Largo
La primavera: Allegro (Danza pastorale)
L'estate (Summer) RV 315
Sonnet
L'estate: Allegro non molto
L'estate: Adagio e piano - Presto e forte
L'estate: Presto
L'autunno (Autumn) RV 293
Sonnet
L'autunno: Allegro
L'autunno: Adagio molto
L'autunno: Allegro 'Caccia'
L'inverno (Winter) RV 297
Sonnet
L'inverno: Allegro non molto
L'inverno: Largo
L'inverno: Allegro
Unknown arranger
La primavera (Spring) RV 269
Allegro
Largo
Allegro (Danza pastorale)
L'estate (Summer) RV 315
Allegro non molto
Adagio e piano - Presto e forte
Presto
L'autunno (Autumn) RV 293
Allegro
Adagio molto
Allegro 'Caccia'
L'inverno (Winter) RV 297
Allegro non molto
Largo
Allegro
Kees Schoonenbeek
La primavera (Spring) RV 269
Allegro
Largo
Danza pastorale
L'estate (Summer) RV 315
Allegro non molto
Adagio e piano - Presto e forte
Presto
L'autunno (Autumn) RV 293
Allegro
Adagio molto
Allegro 'Caccia'
L'inverno (Winter) RV 297
Allegro non molto
Largo
Allegro
Roberto Novegno (Winter missing)
La primavera (Spring) RV 269
Allegro
Largo
Allegro (Danza pastorale)
L'estate (Summer) RV 315
Allegro non molto
Adagio e piano - Presto e forte
Presto
L'autunno (Autumn) RV 293
Allegro
Adagio molto
Allegro 'Caccia'
Other arrangers
Bernard Dewachtere (28 p.)
Autumn 1st Mvt: allegro
Autumn 2nd Mvt: Adagio
Autumn 3rd Mvt: Allegro
Summer 1st Mvt: Allegro non molto
Summer 2nd Mvt: Adagio
Summer 3rd Mvt: Presto
Winter 1st Mvt: Allegro non molto
Winter 3rd Mvt: Allegro
William Wallace-Spring 3rd Mvt (12 p.)
Jim Paterson-Autumn (complete) (10 p.)
Autumn 1st Mvt: Allegro
Autumn 2nd Mvt: Adagio
Autumn 3rd Mvt: Allegro
Galya-Summer 3rd Mvt (Presto) (9 p.)
RSB-Winter 1st Mvt (Allegro non molto) (7 p.)
Dawid Sebastian Lipka-Winter 3rd Movement (Allegro) (5 p.)
Gmajor (4 p.)
Spring 1st Mvt
Autumn 1st Mvt
Balandin (3 p.)
Spring: allegro
Winter: largo
Benedetti (3 p.)
Spring 1st Mvt: Allegro
Autumn 1st Mvt: Allegro
Caroll Barrat-2 themes from Spring & Autumn (2 p.)
Spring
Autumn
Jeff Anvinson-Winter 2nd Mvt (Largo) (2 p.)
Muradyan Avetis-Spring 1st Mvt (2 p.)
James Brigham-Winter 2nd Mvt (Largo) (1 p.)
Zimmusic-Spring 1st Mvt (Allegro) (1 p.)
Jan Wolters-Spring 1st Mvt (Allegro) (1 p.)
Jumikong88-Spring (1 p.)
Doctordelpino-Winter 2nd Mvt (largo) (1 p.)
Linh Linh-awesome-Spring 1st Mvt (1 p.)
Jlaplana-Spring 1st Mvt (1 p.)
Maria Rosa Beltran Carrillo-Primavera 1st Mvt (1 p.)