But we’re living in the 21st century, and we’ve heard a lot of different kinds of birdsong music, whether at the start of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring or Messiaen’s piano music.

“The whole piece begins with a kind of overture-‘Spring 0’ is a scene-setting moment after which ‘Spring 1’ starts with Vivaldi’s birdsong material. For me, Recomposed was an attempt to recapture that affection and sense of wonder I had about the original.” Read on as Richter walks us through each concerto on The New Four Seasons – Vivaldi Recomposed. But as an adult, I grew irritated by the music because I kept hearing it in jingles and adverts. “I fell in love with its wonderful melodies, the drama, the story, the ideas, everything about it. (“I organized an internet search party, and we tracked one down,” Richter says of getting his hands on one.) The question still remains, however: why reinvent Vivaldi? “Like many of us, The Four Seasons was probably the first piece of classical music I got to know as a young child,” says Richter. The digital sounds that Richter weaves into the original 2014 recording to give basslines more weight have been replaced here with the dirtier, grainier heft of early synths, including one of the very first: the iconic and rare Minimoog from the 1970s. It’s more chamber music-like, more intimate.” Yes, the sound is smaller, but in a way it’s a more human sound. “There’s an agility and a lightness to period instruments, and they can make fast, dynamic shifts and execute more detailed articulation. “It was a bit of a no-brainer,” Richter tells Apple Music. Eight years later, Richter made the bold decision to re-record his version of The Four Seasons (released once again on DG), using period instruments strung with gut strings, and performed by soloist Elena Urioste and Chineke! Orchestra. The album was a master class of conservation and revolution-and rightly took the classical music world by storm. Featuring stellar performances by violinist Daniel Hope and the Konzerthaus Kammerorchester Berlin, the work boldly set out to reimagine one of classical music’s best-loved and treasured masterpieces: Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, a set of four violin concertos first published in 1725. In 2014, the premiere recording of Max Richter’s Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi, The Four Seasons was released by Deutsche Grammophon.

Max richter vivaldi spring