Just been digging this piece over the past few days, so thought I’d pass it along in case anyone was interested. I’m not a big Vivaldi fan. OK, I’m not a Vivaldi fan at all, but this is incredibly pretty.
Enjoy, reject, whatever. Let me know what you think.
I heard it some years ago. I am a Vivaldi fan, and thought it was both original and well written. Unfortunately, the original parts were not well written, and the well written parts were not original. More decomposed than recomposed.
Good one!
OK, not to take anything away from your wit, but what is the classic put-down that “original parts were not well written and the well written parts were not original” is modeled on - it’s driving me bonkers that I can’t place it.
Beats the hell out of me. I even tried to Google it. Dorothy Parker? H. L. Mencken? Alexander Woollcott? James Thurber? I’d have attributed it if I knew, but I filed the serial numbers off that thing so many years ago I can’t remember where I stole it.
Half the fun is figuring out where allusions like that come from, so not including the citation is perfectly cromulent!
-often attributed to Samuel Johnson, but lacks evidence and is probably apocryphal.
As for the music, it’s possible my laptop speakers aren’t doing it justice. I’ll listen at home later, but I already have a negative impression.
http://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/06/17/good-original/
Listening to the song now. 4:30 in at the moment and it seems fine. I’d need to go back and listen to the original Vivaldi to decide which I like better. I have a feeling like it wasn’t a favorite, but I may be wrong.
Well, you’re gonna get dinged on the musicology quiz for calling it a “song” rather a “piece”, but I’m glad you took the time to give it a go! 
Two of my most valued qualities in music are inventiveness and prettiness, so it’s really working on both those attributes from my perspective.
First heard Max Richter on the Shutter Island soundtrack (On the Nature of Daylight) and especially liked its mashup with Dinah Washington’s “This Bitter Earth” (which has also been used brilliantly in So You Think You Can Dance and the trailer for The Secret World video game).
The Four Seasons recomp sounds very much like a happier evolution of that work, particularly the background cadence that begins about a minute in. I do like Vivaldi’s work, and it’s a toss-up which version I listen to more at work (Richter’s or the original). I guess it depends on my mood. I think I enjoy it more in a superficial candy-snack sort of way, rather than a deep soupstock nourishment sort of way, if that makes any sense. That Bitter Earth mashup though, that to me is soupstock, though I suspect more because of the contexts in which it’s been presented.
I am a Vivaldi fan…and…while I admire the effort, I don’t really care for it. I get what’s being done, but it comes across more as a parody than as a “recomposition.”
It makes me think of P.D.Q. Bach’s “Einstein on the Fritz.” It takes one guy’s compositional techniques, and applies it to another man’s melody and harmony.
(In contrast, there is “Koto Vivaldi” which is quite nifty; it’s true to both the composition and the instrumentation. It’s the right kind of fusion: it is respectful.)
ETA: Okay, I would go too far if I were to say that Richter was being disrespectful; alas, I think the end result is. Richter’s intent is good, but his results are flawed.
I’m not a *huge *Vivaldi fan, but I like some of his music in small doses. It sounds like Richter expanded what I don’t like about Vivaldi (his obsessive repetitiveness) and diminished what I do like (his melodic inventiveness). And way too minimalist for my taste.
Yes, I’ve listened to the first 3 minutes. He’s put a rock-like beat into the music. Not my cup of tea at all. It gets better at 3:15 but restarts at 6:30. So that’s a No from me.