2 (2009) was conceived as a companion piece to Vivaldi’s original.įirst released in 2012, the Deutsche Grammophon recording of Max Richter’s recomposition of The Four Seasons, featuring Daniel Hope and Konzerthaus Kammerorchester Berlin, conducted by André de Ridder, broke into the charts, with critical acclaim, becoming one of the most widely-heard piece of contemporary classical music. Subtitled American Four Seasons, Philip Glass’s Violin Concerto No. More recently, in 1997, Michael Gordon adopted some Vivaldian gestures and textures as a part of his spellbinding, evening-length audio-visual quest, Weather, scored for string orchestra. Written in 1927, Fritz Kreisler’s Concerto in the style of Vivaldi was initially presented as a long-lost original by the violinist, despite its myriad anachronisms. Its rise to popularity is linked to the advent of recorded music, resulting in unparalleled discography of more than thousand entries.ĭue to its inescapable stature, Vivaldi’s musical rendering has also served as catalyst for several new compositions, more or less linked to the original. Be it Joseph Haydn’s final masterpiece, The Seasons (1799-1801), a resplendent oratorio embodiment of the Ago of Enlightenment, or Žibuoklė Martinaitytė’s Sielunmaisema(2019), a series of subtly evocative timbral imagery for cello and string orchestra, our inner responses to natural phenomena have evoked musical tapestries of dazzling sonic imagination.Īmong all the forays to the genre, the most iconic contribution comes from Antonio Vivaldi, whosecycle of four violin concertos from circa 1718-20, originally published in 1725, as a part of a collection titled Il Cimento dell′ Armonia e dell′ Inventione, nowadays known as The Four Seasons is hardly unknown to anyone ever exposed to Western classical music.

Incessantly rotating cycles of seasons have provided composers with lasting musical inspiration.

Max richter summer 3