Composer: Max Richter Piece: The Four Seasons Recomposed Date written: Some time in Winter 2011 In a sentence or less, how would you describe the music to someone who's never heard it before? The work is a new trip through the landscape of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons. How did the idea for. Recomposed By Max Richter: Vivaldi – The Four Seasons, originally released 31 August 2012, is a radical reinterpretation of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. Like many composers Richter was. One of Vivaldi's greatest works is given a radical reworking by Max Richter, who speaks to Classic FM about the project. British composer Max Richter has made a name for himself with his defiantly modern compositions.

Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi – The Four Seasons is a composition that features on a 2012 album by neo-classical composer Max Richter, released on August 31, 2012 on Universal Classics and Jazz (Germany), a division of Universal Music Group, and Deutsche Grammophon,^[1] and further recorded by Fenella Humphreys and released on Rubicon Classics in 2019.^[2] The piece is a complete recomposition and reinterpretation of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons.

Although Richter said that he had discarded 75 percent of Vivaldi's original material,^[3] the parts he does use are phased and looped, emphasising his grounding in postmodern and minimalist music.^[4]

1. Take a look at the cover. This is the most classic-looking DG release in many a year, which should immediately raise suspicions. Obviously the intent, using one of classical music’s most iconic label marquees, is to endow decomposer Max Richter with a commercial pedigree similar to that enjoyed musically by the object of his current affections (affectations?), Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.
2. Recomposed: Vivaldi – The Four Seasons 2012 Deutsche Grammophon Despite discarding 3/4ths of Vivaldi’s original material in his Recomposition of The Four Seasons, Max Richter considered the Italian composer’s musical DNA as omni-present in the reworking of the material.

The Deutsche Grammophon album was played by the violinist Daniel Hope and the Konzerthaus Kammerorchester Berlinsymphony orchestra, and conducted by André de Ridder. On the album, Hope plays the 'Ex-Lipinski' violin, an instrument made by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù in 1742 and made available to the violinist by a German family who asked to remain anonymous.

The Rubicon Classics recording features soloist Fenella Humphreys and the Covent Garden Sinfonia, conducted by Ben Palmer. Humphreys recorded using a violin from the circle of Peter Guarneri of Venice, made in 1727.

Release[edit]

Richter’s recomposed version of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons was premiered in the UK at the Barbican Centre on 31 October 2012, performed by the Britten Sinfonia, conducted by André de Ridder, with violinist Daniel Hope the soloist.^[5] The album topped the iTunes classical chart in the UK, Germany, and the US.^[6] The US launch concert in New York at Le Poisson Rouge was recorded by NPR and streamed live.

Critical reception[edit]

Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi – The Four Seasons received widespread acclaim from contemporary classical music critics.

Ivan Hewett of the Telegraph gave the album a very positive review, stating:

As you would expect of a composer who once studied with the great modernist Luciano Berio, Richter is very self-aware. He notices that his own taste in repeating patterns doesn’t mesh with the apparently similar patterns in Vivaldi. They obey a different logic, and the friction between them generates a fascinatingly ambiguous colour. Richter teases out and heightens this colour, sometimes with Vivaldi uppermost, sometimes himself. It is a subtle and often moving piece of work, which suggests that after years of tedious disco and trance versions of Mozart, the field of the classical remix has finally become interesting.^[7]

Track listing[edit]

All tracks are written by Max Richter.

Personnel[edit]

Main personnel

Max Richter Spring 1

• Max Richter – composer, mixing, producer, quotation author
• André de Ridder – conductor
• Daniel Hope – primary artist, violin [solo]
• Raphael Alpermann – harpsichord
• Konzerthaus Kammerorchester Berlin – orchestra
• Alexander Kahl – cello
• David Drost – cello
• Nerina Mancini – cello
• Ying Guo – cello
• Ernst-Martin Schmidt – viola
• Felix Korinth – viola
• Katja Plagens – viola
• Matthias Benker – viola
• Alicia Lagger – violin [first]
• Christoph Kulicke – violin [first]
• Karoline Bestehorn – violin [first]
• Sayako Kusaka – violin [first], concertmaster
• Cornelia Dill – violin [second]
• Jana Krämer – violin [second]
• Johannes Jahnel – violin [second]
• Ulrike Töppen – violin [second]
• Ronith Mues – harp
• Georg Schwärsky – double bass
• Jorge Villar Paredes – double bass
• Sandor Tar – double bass

Additional personnel

• Antonio Vivaldi – original material
• Felix Feustel – product manager
• Neil Hutchinson – recording engineer, mixing
• Christian Kellersmann – original concept
• Nick Kimberley – liner notes
• Götz-Michael Rieth – mastering engineer
• Mandy Parnell – mastering engineer
• Matthias Schneider – project manager
• Erik Weiss – photography
• Jenni Whiteside – editing
• Double Standards – art direction

Charts[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^Recomposed by Max Richter – Antonio Vivaldi – Die vier Jahreszeiten – The Four Seasons: Deutsche Grammophon Catalog
2. ^'Rubicon Classics'. rubiconclassics.com. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
3. ^'Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi, The Four Seasons'. Retrieved 27 December 2012.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
4. ^Tania Halban (28 November 2012). 'Recomposed or refragmented?'. Retrieved 1 February 2013.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
5. ^'Max Richter: Vivaldi Recomposed'. 31 October 2012. Archived from the original on 9 November 2012. Retrieved 10 December 2012.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
6. ^'RECOMPOSED | Chart-Erfolg für Max Richters 'Vivaldi Recomposed' in den USA | News'. Klassikakzente.de. Retrieved 29 November 2013.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
7. ^Hewett, Ivan (2012-10-31). 'Vivaldi remixed: classical music reinvents itself'. The Telegraph. ISSN0307-1235. Retrieved 2017-11-21.
8. ^'NZ Heatseeker Albums Chart'. Recorded Music NZ. March 26, 2018. Retrieved March 23, 2018.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)

Max Richter Vivaldi Recomposed