Vivaldi's The Four Seasons recomposed by Max Richter

In the 2012 album "Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi, The Four Seasons”, neo-classical composer Max Richter completely re-composes and reinterprets Vivaldi's beloved baroque work The Four Seasons. This documentary explores the genesis of the recording while also giving some background on Max Richter and Antonio Vivaldi.

Vivaldi's The Four Seasons could easily be the most famous piece of classical music ever composed. As the composer Max Richter tells it, "the piece is part of the musical landscape and a part of my daily life. I hear it in supermarkets and it’s always turning up in TV ads." He approached his "Vivaldi Recomposed" project as both an admirer of Vivaldi and a composer. "Anything that a composer writes is part of a conversation with music that has gone before", he says. Affection is an integral part of Max Richter’s "Vivaldi Recomposed". His "post-classical idiom" draws inspiration from influences like electronic music, punk, club music, psychedelic rock.

Max Richter’s partners with British violinist Daniel Hope and the orchestra l'Arte del Mondo (whose artistic director is the violinist Werner Ehrhardt). A former member of the Beaux Arts Trio, Hope has long championed both contemporary music and the standard classical repertoire, making him the ideal soloist for Richter’s piece.

Picture: © Eric Weiss