Looking at the colorful landscapes of spring often brings to mind Vivaldi's (1678-1741) "The Four Seasons." The fact that bird calls come to mind first when thinking of "The Four Seasons" suggests there is a good reason why spring, among the four seasons, comes to mind most vividly. It is not just bird calls. Take "Spring," for example: in the first movement, one enjoys the sounds of birds and streams before being startled by howling storms and crashing thunder. In the second movement, flowers converse and a shepherd falls asleep, and in the third movement, people dance to the sound of bagpipes. In this way, the piece contains hidden stories, making it closer to program music. At the time, it was rare for instrumental music to depict narratives so concretely, which makes it oddly fitting that the score was included in a collection with the meaningful title "The Contest Between Harmony and Invention" (1725). The reason a piece composed 300 years ago in Venice is still loved today may be that it evokes extraordinary empathy through such stories of life.
"The Four Seasons" has also been a theme sung about in every era. In particular, Max Richter's "Four Seasons" (2012), which recomposes Vivaldi's piece with contemporary sensibilities, may be the most frequently performed version of "The Four Seasons" among recent works. By repeating the characteristic patterns and main melodies of Vivaldi's original — including the bird calls — while adding his signature sensuous harmonies, Richter creates a musical landscape of the 21st century. In this way, the pastoral four seasons of 300 years ago have been transformed into the urban four seasons of today, and Vivaldi's classical empathy has been reborn as Richter's contemporary empathy. And he became a familiar name to the public in an instant. Richter has described recomposition as a process of discovering gems, and the gem of "contemporary empathy" shines brilliantly in this piece.
