Juozas Rimas writes of Vivaldi's fecundity:

>I started to worry about the relation of quantity and quality.  Could you
>please assure me The Seasons are his best work and I don't have to bother
>digging deeper?

The assumption that that quantity must always be at the expense of quality
is just that, an assumption.  The appreciation of music being as subjective
as it is, we are all at liberty to draw our own conclusions on a composer
by composer basis.

Therefore, no, I cannot assure you that The Seasons is Vivaldi's "best"
work.  For me, there is much else in his output that I would rather listen
to.  If The Seasons is representative of his work, it is representative of
of only a small fraction (the viloin concertos, perhaps) of his work.

Finally, I would never suggest to anyone that they "don't have to bother
digging deeper".  It is precisely by exploring those nooks and crannies of
the repertoire overlooked by the conventional wisdom that I have found much
wonderful music that continues to remind me of the joy of discovery.

len.