Vivaldi: The Four Seasons: Winter, RV297 (Violin Concerto in F minor, Op. 8 No. 4; L'inverno; L'hiver)

Awarded a Repertoire 10 by Classica Magazine, this 1979 recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is coupled on disc 2 with Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons, and is performed by Herve le Floch with Les Solistes de France directed by Jean-Claude Hartemann.

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) wrote the four violin concertos known as Le quattro stagioni - “The Four Seasons.” Today The Four Seasons may be the most widely heard piece of classical music ever composed.

Max Richter, the award-winning British composer who has written concert music, film scores, and a series of acclaimed solo albums, has rewritten The Four Seasons with stunning results. Richter’s co-conspirators on Vivaldi Recomposed are Daniel Hope, the British violinist; the German conductor André de Ridder; and the Konzerthaus Kammerorchester Berlin. A former member of the Beaux Arts Trio, Hope is both a notable champion of contemporary music and an exponent of the standard classical repertoire. That makes him the ideal soloist for Richter’s piece.

A truly record-breaking recording: Anne Sophie Mutter's reading of Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons", conducted by the man who discovered her, Herbert von Karajan, was the first classical CD to go platinum. And to this day, its legendary status remains untarnished.

Today’s leading virtuoso of the harp presents famous Baroque concerti by Albinoni, Marcello and Vivaldi in unique new arrangements.

“A selection of wonderful Baroque concerti by Venetian composers, like Marcello, Albinoni and Vivaldi – arranged for my instrument. In his famous “Winter” from The Four Seasons, the glass-like sounds of the harp create an ethereal mood astonishingly reproducing snowflakes and splintering icicles. So all these fantastic pieces which everyone knows suddenly seem fresh and new, and can be rediscovered thanks to the very special sound of the harp.” Xavier de Maistre

Xavier de Maistre is generally fêted as the artist who has managed to liberate the harp from its reputation for wonderful but very soft sounds, and establish it as a solo instrument in the concert hall.

On his new album "Notte Veneziana", the internationally successful harp virtuoso plays well-known concertos by the Venetian composers Vivaldi, Marcello and Albinoni in new arrangements, combining them with original compositions for solo harp such as the sonata by Giovanni Pescetti, Godefroid’s stunning set of variations on the popular tune “Carnaval de Venise”, and “La Mandoline” by 19th-century composer Elias Parish Alvars.

Xavier de Maistre's aim is to make the listener forget completely that most of the Baroque concertos heard here were not originally written for the harp, but for different melody instruments. He finds it fascinating to bring out new timbres in the arrangements, some of which he pens himself. Vivaldi's famous concerto "Winter", in particular, seems to him to be predestined for playing on the harp, and his interpretation does indeed present this often-heard work in a totally new guise.

“Xavier de Maistre is a virtuoso of the highest order, profoundly musical and capable of realizing a remarkable range of nuance.” (Gramophone)

Produced by EMI Classics in partnership with the prestigious National Gallery in London, The National Gallery Collection is a budget-price catalogue series bringing together the very best in fine art and classical music.

The collection features a selection of classical masterworks in celebrated recordings from the EMI Classics catalogue, brought together with great artworks from The National Gallery’s permanent collection.

At the age of only 25, this is Radulovic’s fifth recording. He is a rising star, who has won many prizes and performs with the greatest orchestras in Europe, Asia and America. “The ease and confidence of the soloist’s virtuosity are consistently compelling” The Strad.

World premiere of Sedlar’s Spring in Japan.