“Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons is one of the most familiar works in the classical repertoire,” writes Nick Galvin in Sunday’s (1/10) Sydney Morning Herald (Australia). “An innovative project called The [Uncertain] Four Seasons is attempting to ‘update’ Vivaldi’s work … by injecting climate prediction data into the score to change and distort the music…. Melbourne composer Hugh Crosthwaite’s role is to take the music generated by the computer and smooth off the rough edges to create a ‘spectacular concept that carries the essence of the idea’ but is still capable of being performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra…. One of the data sets to be injected into the Sydney performance concerns biodiversity and species loss. ‘That might mean in one movement you are just missing notes,’ says Crosthwaite. ‘Where Vivaldi says, “Here are the birds” there might be fewer birds.’ One of Crosthwaite’s collaborators is Tim Devine, executive creative director of Sydney design and innovation agency AKQA. He points out that the upcoming performance of The [Uncertain] Four Seasons uses local data to make it specific to Sydney…. The [Uncertain] Four Seasons will be staged … January 12-13 as part of Sydney Festival.”
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