I wrote this two days ago during the snowstorm, and didn’t have a chance to post it until now.

It’s snowing out, which turns out to have been the phrase of the month up here in the Northeast. We’re on our fourth nor’easter of March, a time when crocuses and daffodils and little baby ducks usually show up and dot the landscape with color and love.

And that is happening, between snowstorms. I saw some crocuses the other day, as well as some petunias and daffodil shoots. The little baby ducks probably won’t show for a few weeks anyway, and all of this will probably be gone in a couple of days.

And until then, the snow really is lovely.

So in honor of things that are not what they were designed to be, but that are beautiful anyway, here are a couple of Vivaldi tunes performed on other instruments. First up, it’s L’ ensemble de saxophones de Strasbourg with the first movement of “Winter.”

Hearing a piece of music performed on an instrument it was not written for can be really enlightening. It often brings the piece to a whole new place that not even the composer dreamed of.

To me, this version does that. The performances are wonderful, and hearing this familiar music played by wind instruments brought out counter-melodies and rhythms I hadn’t paid attention to before.

And here’s the first movement of “Spring,” performed on 4 pianos by Yuja Wang, Emanuel Ax, Nelson Goerner and Julien Quentin.

Likewise, this cover version brings out aspects of the piece that I really hadn’t thought about previously. Again, a lot of that involves rhythms. Harmonies and counter-melodies really pop out in this version. It’s an enjoyable listen, but I think there’s a warmth to the original string version that is missing when the piece is performed on keyboards.

Image by Elizabeth Walsh