Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons", Who Chose the Title?

Question

Did Vivaldi himself choose the title "The Four Seasons" and the titles for each of the four concerti, or they're chosen by publishers?

Answer 1

“The Four Seasons” is the name with which are usually known the first four concerts included in “Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’inventione” (“The Contest Between Harmony and Invention”), a set of twelve concerts for violin solo, strings and continuo, written by Vivaldi between 1723 and 1725, published in Amsterdam in 1725.

While the titles of the concerts — “La primavera”, “L’estate”, “L’autunno”, “L’inverno” — are by Vivaldi himself (which also wrote four sonnets, included in the score, which would match the musical description), “The Four Seasons” doesn’t appear in the score as a title, but has become an usual way to referring to them.

It’s worth to mention the fact that three more concerts in the collection carry descriptive titles given by Vivaldi: n. 5 “La tempesta di mare” (“The Sea Storm”), n. 6 “Il piacere” (“The Pleasure”) and n. 10 “La caccia” (“The Hunt”).