Review By

Danny Kaey

Leave it to Deutsche Grammophon to reinvent itself as a luxe electronica publisher for the modern age. Who better to lead the charge than German-born Max Richter who, growing up in England, took a fondness for fusing electronic, classical, and rock themes into what he labels the “post-classical” genre. His influences—Philip Glass, the Beatles, Kraftwerk, Pink Floyd—seem readily identifiable throughout his work.

Even as the term “remix” usually pertains to club sounds, here, Richter decomposes Vivaldi’s masterpiece by filtering the essentials of each season through various sound processors and digging into the digital ProTools maze. Fronted by noted contemporary violinist Daniel Hope, with Berlin’s Kammerorchestra conducted by André de Ridder in toe, Richter sustains and advances Vivaldi’s original to a level at once home in a classical music context as well as a more modern, coming-of-age cinematic experience. Brilliantly produced and engineered, this set is most highly recommended.