I highly recommend this recording (available from DG) by Daniel Hope, an amazing reconception of the most famous work by “the red priest”:

Today the “Four Seasons,” with more than 1,000 available recordings, are not just rediscovered—they are being reimagined. Astor Piazzolla, Uri Caine, Philip Glass and others have all created their own versions. In Spring 2012, I received an enigmatic call from the British composer Max Richter, who said he wanted to “recompose” the “Four Seasons” for me. His problem, he explained, was not with the music, but how we have treated it. We are subjected to it in supermarkets, elevators or when a caller puts you on hold. Like many of us, he was deeply fond of the “Seasons” but felt a degree of irritation at the music’s ubiquity. He told me that because Vivaldi’s music is made up of regular patterns, it has affinities with the seriality of contemporary postminimalism, one style in which he composes. Therefore, he said, the moment seemed ideal to reimagine a new way of hearing it.

I had always shied away from recording Vivaldi’s original. There are simply too many other versions already out there. But Mr. Richter’s reworking meant listening again to what is constantly new in a piece we think we are hearing when, really, we just blank it out. The album, “Recomposed By Max Richter: Four Seasons,” was released late last year. With his old warhorse refitted for the 21st century, the inimitable red priest rides again.

Over at The Imaginative Conservative, you can also find more recommended recordings of “the red priest” for your listening pleasure.

Given what Richter and Hope have done, don’t you think it’s time for someone to do a prog presentation of music by “the red priest”?

It could be epic!