Which Vivaldi Four Seasons CD to buy???

It's a very personal and subjective judgment. There are different versions depending on your taste, many of them wonderful. My personal favorite is on the Archiv label with Trevor Pinnock at the harpsichord leading The English Concert and soloist Simon Standage, all playing on original instruments. For an old warhorse like this, it is a glorious performance and recording.

I agree with Newmanoc that Chesky doesn't typically have the best musicians but the sound quality of the recording of 4 Seasons is wonderful.

I listened to musicians improve through practice and was treated to observing the special evolution of a fiddle player from college musician to 2nd chair violin with several large Calironia symphony orchestra's.

I guess it is a little like the indie label thing. When the music was played with emotion I was able to overlook the occasional squeak?

Anyway, I look forward to trying Ncarv's recommendation myself.

Winston Ma, First Impressions Music
It is the best I have heard--though certainly I haven't heard them all.
We used it in Las Vegas, and everyone asked about it.

Larry

Last year I bought an LP collection that include 17 different versions of the Four Seasons. So I grabbed 6 or 7 more that I already had and spent the entire evening doing a "shootout", by listening only to the "Spring" movement for each.

The Winner for my tastes was a 1985 version on the BIS label by the Drottingholm Baroque Ensemble, Nils-Erik Sparf on baroque violin. It's an original instrument version including recorder, lute, baroque basson, and viola d'amore. The instrumentation is not just a gimmick here - the conducting and performance bring forth the soul of this piece, and the recording captures it. It was a digital recording and it's also available on CD (BIS-CD-275).

Close, but different, 2nd place did go to the Trevor Pinnock / Simon Standage version mentioned by Ncarv above. A mainstream version, but played, conducted, and recorded perfectly. Not as edgy as the BIS, but thoroughly engaging and a must have as a "reference" version IMO.

3rd place went to an unusual, aggressive (Enescu-esque) version contained in a 1966 Supraphon spiral-bound 3 record Baroque set. It could really be a co-2nd place - hard to compare because it's so different than ALL the others.
If I am reading the Czech correctly it is Bohdan Warchal, violin and conducting the Slovak Chamber Orchestra. I seriously doubt it has made it to CD.

There were very few others that I felt were worth keeping after those 3. Many just didn't achieve a good balance between the continuo harpsichord and the orchestra (or omitted it entirely) or were played droningly slow, manically fast, or just didn't have "soul".

I do keep the Telarc around, but mostly because it seem a shame to put a hole in my Telarc collection. I think it came in around 6th or 7th.

trevor pinnock on archiv - not only great performances but
exceptional sound. as for vivaldi, i suggest you don't limit yourself to the "4 seasons"- La Stravaganza (and numerous other string concertos) is a gorgeous piece of music (also on archiv). and his instrumental music offers alot of variety, featuring woodwind instruments as well.