Max Richter: The New Four Seasons Vivaldi Recomposed

Elena Urioste, Chineke! Orchestra, Max Richter

Max Richter: The New Four Seasons Vivaldi Recomposed
Format
Audio
Publisher
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON (IMP)
Country
Published
10 June 2022
ISBN
0028948627691

Max Richter: The New Four Seasons Vivaldi Recomposed

Elena Urioste, Chineke! Orchestra, Max Richter

A decade on from the release of his mesmerising Recomposed album, trailblazing composer Max Richter returns to the sound world of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Recorded with violinist Elena Urioste and the musicians of Chineke! Orchestra, The New Four Seasons sees Richter create a new version of his Recomposed score for period instruments - using gut strings and vintage synthesisers to create a “grittier, more punk rock sound”. The new album will be released on 10 June 2022, preceded by taster tracks including ‘Spring 1’ which is out today. Richter and Chineke! will also perform Recomposed together live for the first time on Thursday 16 June in an exclusive UK summer show Live at Chelsea, with tickets on sale now.

Released in summer 2012, Richter’s genre-defining recomposition of a Baroque masterpiece topped the classical charts in 22 countries. Taking a work he had once loved but which he felt had lost its impact through overexposure, the composer embarked on what he has referred to as “a personal salvage mission” and wove Vivaldi’s musical DNA into something fresh and exciting. His global best-seller has amassed over 450 million streams including 110 million streams for ‘Spring 1’, as Richter’s overall career streams continue to grow to over 3 billion.
Recomposed continues to attract new listeners through its use in the soundtracks of hit TV series including Bridgerton and The Crown, which together saw streams for ‘Spring 1’ triple after the shows aired. It has also been featured in My Brilliant Friend, Chef’s Table, Orphan Black and The Current War. It is a frequent choice for concert repertoire in venues around the world, not to mention a favourite of dancers, ice skaters, actors, filmmakers, fashion designers and more. ‘Spring 1’ is a personal favourite of Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty, as well as Christine & The Queens who described it as “the best song ever to fall in love to” and Diddy who called it his “theme music”.

Having performed Recomposed live many times in the last decade, Richter was inspired by a special rendition of the work on period instruments to take “a new trip through the text using Vivaldi’s own colours”. The New Four Seasons applies a Baroque palette to the score in which he transforms or subverts fragments from the original four violin concertos by refracting them through different musical prisms, spinning them into different shapes and colours and enveloping them in completely different orchestral settings.

Richter has revisited the electronics too, here opting for Moog synths from the 70s - “the equivalent of the Stradivarius”. Asked about the difference in sound between modern and period strings, he laughs: “I heard someone say it’s the difference between smooth peanut butter and crunchy peanut butter, which encapsulates it really well!”

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