Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons: A Reimagining – Review

Catch it if you can: Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons: A Reimagining at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse is a live performance of Max Richter’s 2012 arrangement of Vivaldi – punchy and poetic, especially if you feel weary of the original – as accompaniment to the bunraku-inspired puppetry of Gyre & Gimble. In their ingenious, nonspecific tale of sea, drowning, loss, survival and redemption, music and action come together immaculately. Much open weeping all around. Opening: Friday 9 March – Saturday 21 April 2018

Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons comes to thrilling, theatrical life in an exhilarating show combining Gyre & Gimble’s master puppeteers with a sextet of London’s finest musicians. The performance will conjure a poetic and emotional narrative in response to Max Richter’s acclaimed recomposition of Vivaldi’s pictorial masterpiece, which has been newly arranged for the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. Inspired by the mastery of Japanese Bunraku theatre, this unprecedented collaboration will explore not only the form and techniques of puppetry, but the crystalline acoustic and candlelit ambience of the space in an enchanting new way.

Before The Four Seasons and the puppetry begins, our wonderful players will perform a magical mix of Vivaldi concerti for strings to transport you into the musical world of the performance. This prelude lasts approximately 20 minutes and includes the following parts:

Vivaldi Concerto for 2 violins in D minor
Op. 3 No. 11 – 1. Allegro

Vivaldi Concerto for Strings in G minor
Alla Rustica RV. 151 – 1. Allegro

Geminiani Cello Sonata in D minor
Op. 5, No. 2 – 2. Adagio

Vivaldi Concerto for Strings in G minor
RV. 156 (complete)
1. Allegro
2. Adagio
3. Presto

Vivaldi Concerto for Strings in G minor
Alla Rustica RV. 151 – 3. Allegro

As well as being a composer, Max Richter is an accomplished pianist, producer and collaborator, and indisputably one of the most prolific of contemporary musical artists.

Gyre & Gimble place puppetry at the heart of storytelling. The company, founded by former associate puppetry directors of War Horse, use puppetry to create compelling characters and tell fantastical, improbable – even impossible – stories.