The Four Seasons by Rino Trasi
Urban Cluster, Danelon, Torri

Urban Cluster

Francesco Esposito, clarinet
Emanuela Ferrari, piano
Rino Trasi, electric bass
Paolo Ragni, percussion and electronics

With the participation of

Francesca Torri, flute
Valentina Danelon, violin

35’ | Admission with museum ticket

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons are perhaps the earliest and most famous example of “programmatic” music, where the instrumental ensemble becomes a brush capable of painting the eternal cycle of time.

It is a work deeply rooted in nature and the Venetian countryside of the eighteenth century, which today is reborn in a disruptive form thanks to Rino Trasi’s contemporary reworking for the Urban Cluster project. In this “Vivaldi Reloaded,” the memory of what is perhaps the most “pop” composer in history is dismantled and reassembled piece by piece, projecting the listener into a distinctly urban context. The dialogue between violin and flute retains a subtle connection to the original “nature,” but is immediately displaced by the timbre of the clarinet. The colours of this version belong to our time: electric, dynamic, and deeply rhythmic, where the use of electronics is never intrusive, but functions as a sonic carpet onto which classical themes are layered. The intertwining Vivaldian notes lose their eighteenth-century grace and acquire the force of repetitive patterns typical of American minimalism. The rhythm becomes frenetic, evoking the pulse of metropolises or the constant motion of train journeys, transforming the contemplation of landscape into a metropolitan experience.

Listening to this arrangement means witnessing the ultimate metamorphosis of classical form: a living organism that, while preserving its roots, chooses to inhabit the complexity of the contemporary world.

Text curated by Martina Sangermano