Cho-Liang Lin

In four corners of the globe, in each of the four seasons, four outstanding violinists guide us on an extraordinary journey through their four distinct homelands. From the springtime blossoms of Japan, into the blistering heat and thunderstorms of an Australian summer; from a joyful autumn in New York, to the unforgiving cold and human warmth of a Finnish winter. The resonant and much-loved music of Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons and the timeless stories they tell, form the backbone to this bold and engaging celebration of friendship, homeland and the cycles of life.

Praised by Gramophone magazine as ‘an invigorating account of the Seasons’ when first released on Naxos CD 8.557920, Vivaldi’s universally popular Four Seasons, with their virtuoso part for solo violinist, depict the changing seasons in a pastoral landscape with dazzling variety. Vivaldi evokes not only the changing atmospheric conditions, but bird calls and animal cries, swaying grass, bubbling brooks, and even comical drunkards and a man walking on ice. Violinist Cho-Liang Lin, who has been compared with Gidon Kremer, Nigel Kennedy and Kyung-Wha Chung, and the virtuoso ensemble Sejong give ‘a durable and unmannered, yet bracing and continuously interesting version’ (Fanfare) of these immortal classics.

Le Grand Échiquier is a French variety television program created and presented by Jacques Chancel. It aired at 8:30 pm on the first channel of the ORTF from January 12, 1972 to July 12, 1972, then on the second color channel of the ORTF from September 1972 to December 1974, and finally on Antenne 2 from January 1975 to December 21, 1989. The program returned to France 2 on December 20, 2018 and is hosted by Anne-Sophie Lapix.