SPRING VIVALDI FULL

It's really eerie: Max has kept Vivaldi's melody, but it's pulled apart by the ethereal harmonics underneath it.'Ĭan it all work beyond the recording studio? Audiences at the Barbican in London will find out later this month, when Vivaldi Recomposed is given its debut performance, with Hope backed by the Britten Sinfonia under the baton of André de Ridder. 'It's as if an alien has picked it up and pulled it through a time warp. 'It's really out of this world,' he says. The slow movement of Winter is another standout moment for Hope.

But even in poking fun at the original, there's always enormous respect.' You end up with a rickety and slightly one-legged Vivaldi. He pulls the rhythm around, starts dropping quavers here and there. 'What really threw me was the first movement of Autumn. 'I had to deal with all the curveballs Max throws at you, the way he does things you don't expect.' The experience clearly messed with Hope's mind. 'It was incredibly thought-provoking,' he says. And imagine how it felt for Recomposed's solo violinist Daniel Hope: having played the original for decades, he – and more importantly his fingers – faced a surreal task when he first picked his way through Richter's score.

SPRING VIVALDI FULL

Part of the fun of the album is that your ears play tricks with your memory of the original: these familiar melodies do unexpected things, resulting in an experience that's both disturbing yet full of strange delights.

It's pattern music, in a way, so there's a connection with the whole post-minimalist aesthetic I'm part of.' I was pleased to discover that Vivaldi's music is very modular. 'There are times I depart completely from the original, yes, but there are moments when it pokes through.

You can hear this chemical reaction particularly well at the opening of Richter's reworked Summer concerto, which has become a weird collision of Arvo Pärt-likemelancholy in the solo violin and a minimalist workout for the rest of the strings. It’s the most uplifting of musical experiences, filling your soul with hope and sending your heart soaring, along with those violin notes, right up to those vaulted ceilings - three of which are listed below.Īnd while Four Seasons might end in winter, reminding us of the inevitable cycle of life, that all good things come to a close, Vivaldi’s sounds of spring linger in your mind long after the concert, reminding us that some of life’s joys - say, springtime, or trips to Paris - are so good that they actually do get repeat performances.This involved 'throwing molecules of the original Vivaldi into a test tube with a bunch of other things, and waiting for an explosion'.

The genius creation of composer Antonio Vivaldi, born in Venice in 1678, Four Seasons bursts into action with a joyous celebration of spring, all bright and sparkly notes representing bubbling brooks and chirping birds.

This group of four concerti is a beloved act on the city’s classical music scene, played in some of the most breathtaking spaces, the violin strains floating to the ornate ceilings. One of the most wonderful ways to celebrate spring in Paris (in addition to going to Printemps to buy a new-season wardrobe, bien sûr!), is revelling in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

Spring vivaldi