Next month, Wordless Music welcomes back an old friend, Max Richter, for the U.S. premiere of his Vivaldi Recomposed project, for which the composer re-imagined the music of that ubiquitous 1725 baroque chestnut, The Four Seasons, and, in so doing, created an entirely new and original score. In Max Richter’s own words:
“The Four Seasons is an omnipresent piece of music and like no other part of our musical landscape. I hear it in the supermarket regularly, am confronted with it in adverts, or hear it as muzak when on hold…the biggest challenge was to create a new score, an experimental hybrid, that constantly references ‘Vivaldi’ but also ‘Richter,’ and which is current but simultaneously preserves the original spirit of this great work…In my notes you will find parts that consist of 90% of my own material; but on the other hand you will find moments where I have only altered a couple of notes in Vivaldi’s original score and shortened, prolonged or shifted some of the beats. I literally wrote myself into Vivaldi’s score.”
December’s Vivaldi Recomposed concerts will be Max Richter’s first NYC appearances in four years, and will be performed live by the 25 musicians of Ensemble LPR, violin soloist Daniel Hope, and Max Richter on synthesizer and electronics. In addition, Max Richter and string players from Ensemble LPR will perform selections from the composer’s widely influential discography.
Le Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street, NYC
Doors open: 6:30pm / Show time: 7:30pm