The acclaimed British composer Max Richter reapproaches Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, creating a new version for strings, harpsichord, harp, and solo violin. This re-signification of the Baroque masterpiece aims to form a work that is both new and timeless—a musical perpetuum mobile: an unceasing oscillation reflecting the passage of life in Prespes.

The stone quarry of Mikrolimni is transformed into a space of living encounter between music, body, and place. A physical performance, directed by Panos Zygouros, unfolds between the seasons, entering into dialogue with the traditions of Prespes, its daily life, its activities, and the interactions that shape existence around the lake. Movement, form, and costume narrate stories of the relationship between humans and their environment, of the cycles of social life, and of how time reshapes both place and people.

The perpetuum mobile does not stop: the seasons follow one another, and life persists. Prespes lives on and continues.

Director’s Note:

Through Max Richter’s contemporary recomposition, Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons is revived and heard anew from the very beginning. In this performance, the passing and transformation of the seasons are similarly reinterpreted through an alternative perspective: that of the farmers who cultivate beans and organise their lives around the rhythms of the land. Spring now signifies sowing, summer irrigation, and autumn the gathering of the harvest.

In between, there is always time for wine and good food at the local taverna, for celebrations and communal gatherings, and even for a new ambitious music festival in the region — something that feels at once both foreign and deeply familiar. Yet for life to continue flowing smoothly, the weather must remain on their side and the harvest must succeed.

Conductor: Yorgos Ziavras
Director: Panos Zygouros

Solo Violin: Katerina Chatzinikolau

String Orchestra featuring members of the Symphony Orchestra of the City of Athens

Harpsichord: Alexandros Drosos
Harp: Sissy Makropoulou

Performers: Eirini Ligatou, Eleni Filiousi, Alexandra Christodoulea and local Prespa residents.

The production incorporates the participation of local residents as part of the festival’s educational and community engagement mission.