German-born, UK-based composer and musician Max Richter is just one of those people who gets on with achieving greatness in his chosen field with minimal fanfare.

He may not be a household name, but you would certainly know his work, given his involvement in scoring the soundtracks of films directed by the likes of Clint Eastwood, Ridley Scott and Terrence Malick. He also records and releases his own music, and is involved in major ballet, opera and other stage works.

Up until now, however, his illustrious career has never brought him to Australia to perform. That all changes late this month, when Richter brings his Wordless Music Orchestra to our shores for two exclusive performances. Speaking on this occasion from Berlin, he could not be happier about it.

“I’m excited actually,” he says. “I’ve never been down in Australia before – have had a few near misses to try and make it, but the timing’s never worked out. It’s nice to be able to get these shows organised.”

The show Richter is bringing Down Under is entitled Vivaldi The Four Seasons Recomposed, and entails Richter and his backing orchestra reworking and reimagining one of the most famous classical pieces of all time. “It’s kind of a new trip through the landscape of The Four Seasons,” he says. “Vivaldi obviously wrote this piece, and it’s one of the great masterpieces of art and music. It’s probably one of the first pieces of orchestral music most of us ever get to know. That happened to me as a child; I fell in love with this beautiful material, it’s got wonderful melodies, it’s beautifully structured, it’s full of drama and stories and pictures. It’s a perfect piece of music, really, for a kid, but also for grown-up audiences and musicians.”

Richter feels that over the years, with Vivaldi’s work (or parts of it) being used in advertising and other less worthy settings, some of its wonder has been somewhat lost. He wanted to bring it back to its original beauty.

“Having fallen in love with this material, I just started to become aware of it, growing up and studying music, that I wasn’t really hearing it in the way that I felt it deserved to be heard. I was hearing it mostly on adverts, on the TV and on jingles and in shopping malls, and it started to just kind of irritate me.

“I had this kind of dual schism in my head – I knew intellectually that it was beautiful music, but I just couldn’t love it anymore, and it started to bug me, like an annoying jingle. So really, this whole project is me trying to reconnect with this landscape which Vivaldi’s made, and to take a new trip through it, to try and fall in love with it again, basically. That’s the plan, anyway.”

Another point of difference for Richter’s new take on the centuries-old classic is that he is able to up the ante a little on the delivery. “We have a wonderful ensemble, which is the Wordless Orchestra from New York, as well as Yuki Numata playing fiddle, and they’re my favourite band on this piece. I played it with them in New York one time and they just blew the roof off the venue. I just think they’re absolutely brilliant.

“So I think it’s going to be a very exciting evening of music. They’re quite sort of ‘rock’n’roll’, as an orchestra, which is what this needs, actually. Because I always think with Vivaldi, you hear the original, and you can hear him trying to get more power out of the band, in the way he’s writing it, and I’ve actually sort of taken that instinct on from him and gone, ‘OK, so I’m just going to turn it up.’ And these are the guys to do it.”

Vivaldi The Four Seasons Recomposed at theConcert Hall, Sydney Opera House on Sunday November 23, tickets online.