Le Mezze Stagioni (The Four Mid-Seasons) – Cesare Carretta

Rewriting – i.e. adapting, transcribing – is always a very creative activity, which allows a later composer to enter a fruitful dialogue with those preceding him, to know intimately their work and style, their strategies and technique, but also to infuse new life to masterpieces of the past, which acquire a new personality in his hands. A turning point for the history of musical rewriting is the early twentieth century, when sound reproduction allowed for a much more effective transmission of musical works, and brought about new genres and styles which were much less Eurocentric than those preceding them. This album allows us to experience Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, one of the best known masterpieces of Western music, as seen through the lens of jazz: a radical rediscovery, which will refresh the listener’s experience of Vivaldi in a stimulating and hitherto unimaginable fashion.