Max Richter—a pianist and neoclassical composer squarely in my top five—has released a new project called Vivaldi Recomposed. Every single work by Richter, and I mean every single bit, is writing-, contemplation-, and coding-worthy. When I discovered Richter, it was as if his taste in composition and instrumentation had been designed specifically as a gift to me. If you aren’t familiar with his work, the most likely place you have heard him is via several pieces toward the end of Stranger Than Fiction.
Being someone who has performed Vivaldi’s Four Seasons multiple times on violin, Richter’s reinterpretation of Vivaldi is delightful and inspiring. It is provocative and deliberate, completely avoiding the feeling that he’s just randomly messing with the original. It has the Richter aesthetic all over it.
Check out Vivaldi Recomposed on Spotify, Amazon, or iTunes.
Here is an 8-minute interview with Richter about the project.
Out of his catalog, I would recommend you check out the follow albums: Blue Notebooks, 24 Postcards in Full Color, Memoryhouse, Infra, Songs from Before… You get the idea. Listen to all of it.