Video Interview, Alessandro Quarta on Sixteen Seasons

Alessandro Quarta's multifaceted musical personality is virtually impossible to pin down. Combining the public image of a rock-star violinist (Nigel Kennedy turned up to 11) with a wide-ranging palate as a composer, he has frequently skirted around the main stream of the classical world and forged his own unique and often jazz-influenced path – though a stint as an orchestral violinist under Lorin Maazel betrays his equally deep love for, and commitment to, "core" classical.

One of his most successful projects to date has been an album of Piazzolla released in 2017, and it is this strand that Quarta further develops in his latest release Sixteen Seasons. Taking to its logical – and exuberant – conclusion the popular idea of pairing Vivaldi's Four Seasons with Piazzolla's Estaciones Porteñas, Max Richter's Four Seasons Recomposed or Philip Glass's American Four Seasons, Quarta collaborates with Dino De Palma in presenting all four sets together, for the titular total of sixteen.

Presto's Head of Marketing Paolo Pezzangora caught up with Alessandro to talk about the genesis of this album and his approach to the works by Vivaldi and Piazzolla.

Subtitles translated by Paolo Pezzangora