Vivaldi: The Four Seasons (Recomposed by Max Richter)

REPORTS that postmodernism is dead and buried are not to be believed.

Max Richter: Vivaldi's Four Seasons

REPORTS that postmodernism is dead and buried are not to be believed. Vladimir Martynov's recent toying with the music of Schubert, in his grotesquely spectral Schubert Quintet (Unfinished), showed that the art of transforming original works through pastiche and parody is still alive.

Now comes a reworking of Vivaldi thanks to Max Richter, a UK-educated German composer best known for his richly atmospheric electronica score for Waltz with Bashir (2008).

His recomposition of The Four Seasons, employing string orchestra and discreetly added electronics, is one of the cleverest pieces of musical postmodernism.

Teasingly, he leaves large sections of the four violin concertos intact, but just when one least expects it the music's familiar patterns are subverted. Harmonic sequences are pushed to almost comical proportions, rhythms are thrown out of symmetry by dropping or adding beats, swaths of electronica-like string textures are patched in, and Vivaldi's spruce little melodies are mutated into cinematic schmaltz.

The result sounds facile, but is exceedingly clever. Stylistically, it is a nod to 1980s minimalism, particularly by way of Michael Nyman's neo-baroque score for The Draughtsman's Contract, but it is also injected with techno and dance music reminiscent of the 90s Ministry of Sound.

These influences may seem dated but Richter comes up with something unquestionably contemporary in flavour and makes these nearly 300-year-old concertos gleam like new. Only adding to his success is an understated, poker-faced but finely wrought performance by solo violinist Daniel Hope accompanied by Konzerthaus Kammerorchester Berlin under conductor Andre de Ridder.

LABEL: Deutsche Grammophon
RATING: 5 stars