The beautiful sounds of Vivaldi echoed through the reverberant halls of the Chapel of the Incarnate Word in early September…and then there was something else, that was clearly inspired by Vivaldi, but different.
For this program, Agarita invited seven talented friends onstage to perform "Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi's Four Seasons,” which takes the melodies of Vivaldi’s famous concerti as inspiration for a wholly new work that's a little atmospheric, and a little baroque.
Where Vivaldi is writing music to evoke the sounds of the seasons, says Agarita’s pianist Daniel Anastasio, contemporary composer Max Richter is using those same melodies as a framework to explore something different.
“It's like [Richter] recognized some kind of structure in the Vivaldi that might intermingle with the way that he likes to express himself harmonically,” Anastasio says.
“It's this marriage between the musical material that Vivaldi uses, and the style and structure that Max Richter prefers, that creates this unique combination that I think is a very successful and evocative and incredibly accessible version of Vivaldi's music.”
Richter’s music, Anastasio says, unfolds over a longer period of time. Not that the pieces are much longer than Vivaldi’s originals. It’s just that the melodic elements are more sparse, the spaces in between the phrases perhaps a little wider.
Give a listen by using the audio player at the top of this page, and enjoy Vivaldi and Max Richter.
PROGRAM:
- Spring: Allegro, by Antonio Vivaldi
- Recomposed: The Four Seasons, by Max Richter
