Needles & Grooves AotM /// Vol. 13 - July 2020 /// Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi – The Four Seasons

Yours must have been longer than that. You had clues to lyrics in songs of an album that was new to most of of and pictures of trees from google earth...
I'm convinced mine could have gone unsolved if I hadn't given the clue about (telling people to look in) the PopTart thread, or at least it would have been gotten at the last second, but I had initially planned to build the hype with it being the frontrunner but once it was guessed it was immediately recognized as the pick, so that plan kinda fell through 😂

I know my clues and thread were a bit unconventional, but I'm still happy with how it turned out and I'm glad people enjoyed the album I chose!
 
I’m losing sight of the actual artist , thinking of really hard clues to build a record around , which kinda misses the point!
So I’m sticking with my artist but definitely goons be doing a bit of research for obscure factoids

Yeah it’s about the album, not the clues 😂

There’s nothing wrong with going normal with your clues either, just saying!
 
Hey @gaporter and @debianlinux , did y’all get a chance to listen to this album yet? I’m really curious how y’all came down on it
I haven't 😔 I may buy it blindly soon and just wait to give it a listen when the record comes in, I trust @Alexander's impeccable taste. Plus I'm hoping to be a N&G AOTM completionist someday :D
 
I haven't 😔 I may buy it blindly soon and just wait to give it a listen when the record comes in, I trust @Alexander's impeccable taste. Plus I'm hoping to be a N&G AOTM completionist someday :D

I don’t think you’ll be disapointed. What I like about it is that its not a faithful baroque performance of a classical standard, it’s more of a modernist, minimal reinterpretation of the piece.
 
Hey @gaporter and @debianlinux , did y’all get a chance to listen to this album yet? I’m really curious how y’all came down on it
I did yesterday. It’s fine. It’s about what I expected. I can see why people like it a lot. It’s kind of a toes in the water classical album if you will which works well for a general audience. I would have preferred a more frahmish approach with arpeggios and echoes and such.
 
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All jokes aside, it won't be for everyone. Thank you for taking the time to listen to it and give it a go.
I was considering the overall approach of picking an album for the forum and deciding it would be classical. Going through that exercise this is a damn fine pick in that regard. I would liken it to the Khemmis pick in that if we're already in the territory of music that the average person is largely unexposed to from a personal listening perspective then it absolutely has to be accessible, relatable, and preferably recognizable. I suppose that applies to every pick but there's always the added criteria of balancing an attempt at novel introduction with appeasing the familiar (the Lou Reed and Mark de Clive-Low picks being fantastic examples).

Considering that Richter, in my opinion, is vastly overshadowed in his primary writing mode (namely neo.classical piano ala Infra and Sleep) and that the bulk of his work outside that realm is movie soundtracks, I would say if I were going to use Richter as my artist for the pick this is probably the best possible album to go with.

It's a great pick and hopefully opens up a lot of exploration into a sub genre I really do love. As you said, it's not for everyone and somehow despite my predilection for music along these lines I found myself in the out group this time.
 
Unrelated but this hasn't been divisive like you thought at all, most people generally really liked it besides maybe deb. Even I the most pop rock loving, needs vocals, shorter songs the better person found stuff I certainly really liked, it's just more a disconnect from what classical always felt like to me

Maybe if we get a max Richter AMA I can ask him about this, how it seems that at first it's treated like music for babies to listen to because parenting guides tell them too, and you don't truly get to love it again unless you are big into music theory or grow into your 30s to 50s. I kinda wanted to ask him how he fell in love with classical
 
Just wanted to add another take on your pick.
Coming from someone who listens to a lot of classical (on numerous formats) I appreciated the pick given I’d not searched out the four seasons for a long while - This interpretation might not contain much of that piece but that’s why I enjoyed it so much. It’s an interesting take and an enjoyable listen. I’m looking forward to adding this one to my collection.
Whilst i can understand @debianlinux wish for a Nils Frahm pick. I’m glad it’s not. That would be too close to following VMPs path for my liking.
 
I would suggest to give a listen to Portuguese artist Rodrigo Leão. I see a similar approach of Classical music in Leão's music even if he also adds, depending on the album, some classy pop voices (he worked with Beth Gibbons, Neil Hannon from the Divine Comedy, Scott Mathew or Stuart A. Staples from Tindersticks). I recommend his Best Of album O Mundo, released in 2006 to listen to the different musical genres he does and then O Retiro, in a more classical way, with the Philarmonic Orchestra of Gulbenkian Museum, released in 2015. Those who enjoyed The Gloaming, the Aotm picked by @Joe Mac a few months ago, may find some similarities with Leão's music in his attempt to connect traditional and modern music.
 
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