We presented Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi – The Four Seasons at Teatro Niccolini in Florence for the first time, opening a new venue in our concert geography with a programme built on memory, transformation and living sound.
Teatro Niccolini is not just another historic stage. As the oldest theatre in Florence, it carries a particular kind of silence before the music begins — the silence of a place that has already heard centuries of voices, steps, applause and stories. For one evening, that history became part of the performance.
Vivaldi’s legendary cycle, reimagined by Max Richter, found a natural home in this space. The music moved between the recognisable and the unexpected: spring, summer, autumn and winter no longer appeared as fixed images, but as shifting states of light, rhythm and emotion.
At the centre of the evening was violinist Lorenzo Fuoco, concertmaster of the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, performing on a Matteo Goffriller violin from Venice, 1730. Its warm, deep tone added another layer to the dialogue between Vivaldi and Richter — between Baroque clarity and contemporary pulse.
This first concert at Teatro Niccolini became more than a venue debut. It was a meeting of three times at once: Vivaldi’s Italy, Richter’s modern vision and Florence’s own theatrical memory. A rare evening where the seasons did not simply change — they returned in a new voice.
