Max Richter – The New Four Seasons – Vivaldi Recomposed – Spring 1 (Official Video)
Listen to 'The New Four Seasons': https://DG.lnk.to/recomposed

A decade on from the release of his mesmerising Recomposed album, the composer returns to the sound world of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, accompanied by violinist Elena Urioste and the musicians of Chineke! Orchestra.

Having performed Recomposed live many times in the last decade, he 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!”