And Vivaldi's violin horn calls in the finale of "Autumn" morph into a comforting minimalist blanket of warm double basses and electronics. We hadn’t heard anything like that, ever. When Max Richter’s Recomposed first exploded into our collective ears almost a decade ago, a 59-minutes-28-seconds sonic starburst, the effect for so many people was total. ![]() The cheerful birdsong that opens Vivaldi's "Spring" emerges as mere shards of the original, backed by moody pedal points in the electronic low end, lending it a movie music feel. Hide 10 tracks for Richter, Max: Recomposed By Max Richter: Vivaldi, The Four Seasons. In Richter's reimagining, you'll recognize more than a few weather-related signposts like the violin's shivering figures in "Winter" and bolts of thunder in stormy "Summer." Yet in other places the music is heavily disguised. Richter recorded his rejiggered Seasons with violin soloist Daniel Hope and together they brought the project to (Le) Poisson Rouge, the Greenwich Village music space, where we had our cameras set up and ready to roll. Vivaldis Four Seasons, reinvented by the imagination of Max Richter and performed live by Londons own ground-breaking 12 Ensemble. Still, Richter's remodeled version retains the basic shape, and much of the spirit, of the master's original four violin concertos - each about ten minutes and in three movements, sequenced fast-slow-fast. It sounds a little hipper - lighter on its feet in places, darker and more cinematic in others. ![]() He discarded about three quarters of Vivaldi's original, substituted his own music and tucked in some light electronics for a total Four Seasons makeover. ![]() So instead of writing off the piece forever, Richter rewrote it. ![]() Long ago he loved it the piece but like some of us, he grew tired of the overplayed warhorse, which can be found in no fewer than 250 recordings on sites like ArchivMusic. Can't take another moment of Vivaldi's ubiquitous Four Seasons? Neither could Max Richter, a London-based composer who deftly blurs the lines between the classical and electronic worlds.
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