This is a straightforward Seasons, a perfectly good pick from the many available recordings for anyone who wants the music played with skill and commitment, and no funny business. Cho-Liang Lin and the New York-based Sejong play on modern instruments, choose uncontroversial tempi, and produce a sound which combines rich vibrancy with a clean-edged brightness and coursing freshness which recreates something of the inspiriting effect of a dose of mountain air. Comparatively little interest is shown in the music's descriptive qualities but there is plenty of sensible interpretative detail, with textures clear and ensemble tight; rapid repeated notes are not just scrubbed at, you can really hear them!

Thus there is not much to dislike, though I for one found some of the group ornamentation irritating; it is only an occasional twiddle here and there, but without the necessary spontaneity they are more distracting than enhancing. The sudden brief outburst of chamber organ activity in the final movement of “Spring” is another strange intrusion, while the background noise of New York City is also a worry - at times it is almost as if, somewhere a few fields away from where the shepherd sleeps, agricultural machinery is at work.
Two delightful programmatic companion works from Vivaldi's Op 8 make ideal fillers and are dispatched with similar bracing energy.