The fascist afterlife of The Four Seasons

Bernardino Molinari worked with the Palestine Symphony Orchestra , precursor of the Israel Philharmonic .

He also orchestrated Hatikva , soon to become the national anthem of the new state of Israel .

He was a board member of the Fascist Union of Musicians , and acted as Mussolini ’s informal music consultant.

He arrived in Palestine on a British bomber, after there had been protests at two of his concerts in Rome , the second of which resulted in a walk-out from his own musicians, effectively ending his career at home.

The Four Seasons celebrate 300 years since being published in Amsterdam in 1725 .

Vivaldi 's music was also promoted by the Italy -based American poet Ezra Pound , a fascist sympathiser and part-time composer.

Pound ’s long-term mistress, Olga Rudge , a concert violinist, had played a private performance for Mussolini in 1927 .

Mussolini was reported to have told Rudge that he believed the still little-known Vivaldi to be “the greatest composer of all time”.

His recomposition wasn’t without controversy Richter used only 25 per cent of Vivaldi ’s score but it was wildly popular, clocking up an estimated half a billion online plays. The Four Seasons and its once-lost composer have become seemingly bulletproof, surviving a grim association with fascism, to find extraordinary success in every format of recorded music, from 78s to streaming. Phil Hebblethwaite ’s “ The Essay: Vivaldi A Man for All Seasons ” is on BBC Sounds [See also: Nato on the brink].