Max Richter


(Copyright © 2006 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of use )
Memoryhouse (2002), 6/10
The Blue Notebooks (2004), 7/10
Infra (2010), 6.5/10
Sleep (2015), 6/10
Three Worlds (2017), 6/10
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After collaborating with the Future Sound of London, German composer Max Richter (1966) launched his solo career with Memoryhouse (2002), that contains short new-age "songs" such as Sarajevo and November.

The Blue Notebooks (2004) is based on readings of literary sources. It begins with a woman typing and reading against the sound of ocean waves (The Blue Notebooks). After the circular adagio for strings On the Nature of Daylight (perhaps his most famous composition), the eight-minute Shadow Journal resumes from the typing and reading woman and turns it into a subdued violin-led chamber lament. From the same premise of the female writer/reader, he derives the surreal interlude Arboretum and the eight-minute dramatic symphonic poem The Trees. Iconography manipulates a female chant to obtain a celestial effect, and Organum is solemn ambient church music. There is variety, depth and pathos.

After Songs from Before (2006) he composed the film soundtrack for Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir (2007).

After 24 Postcards in Full Colour (2008), 24 "miniatures for ringtones", Richter released Infra (2010), that contains the 25-minute ballet score Infra (premiered in november 2008), in reality a sequence of eight unrelated short vignettes, ranging from glitch-y ambience to piano solos. Another artistic peak was the chamber opera Sum (premiered in 2012).

After Vivaldi – The Four Seasons (2012), a sort of remix of Vivaldi's masterpiece, the film soundtrack for Ari Folman's The Congress (2013), and the TV soundtrack The Leftovers (2014), Richter released the colossal Sleep (2015), an eight-hour symphonic work in 31 movements for piano, cello, two violas, two violins, organ, soprano vocals and electronics (first premiered in september 2015), with movements ranging from three minutes to 33 minutes.

Three Worlds (2017) contains excerpts from the ballet score Woolf Works inspired by Virginia Woolf's novels.

Voices (2020) was a collaboration with visual artist Yulia Mahr.

Exiles (2021) offers orchestral versions of some of his material.

(Copyright © 2006 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of use )
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