Max Richter - Voices (broadcast premiere) & Infra (recorded live, 10 Dec 2020)

Another concert broadcast, this time bang up to date with a special international simulcast last Thursday for Human Rights Day.  Max Richter's new work Voices uses as its narration parts of the 1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and this live recording took place in London's Maida Vale Studios.

First up is a condensed version (only two of the linking "Journey" segments are performed) of Richter's 2010 work Infra, written in memory of the 7/7 attacks on London in 2005.  With just strings, piano and electronics, it's a lovely stark and sombre experience that sets the stage for the main event.

Voices is also condensed, but only in its instrumental forces compared to the album version - all ten parts of the work are performed.  The aforementioned narration is also joined by crowdsourced samples of people reading extracts of the Declaration in different languages, and the instrumentation is again based on strings, solo violin and piano.  This is fleshed out by wordless choral voices and a soprano part (the lengthy Chorale is a definite highlight), and other sampled environmental sounds.  Richter in the preamble discussion notes the influence of Schubert, particularly Winterreisse, but the gentle, accessible mode of expression is recognisably Richter.

After the performance, the broadcast continued with Richter introducing half an hour of music that has inspired him.  I've left this in, as they were all great choices: Bob Dylan, Thomas Tallis, Abdullah Ibrahim (aka Dollar Brand), Kraftwerk and Charles Ives.

link

pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG: Sleep

Max Richter - Sleep (BBC Radio premiere, Sept. 2015)

Shortly after the release of German-British composer Max Richter (b. 1966)'s "eight-hour lullaby" Sleep and its accompanying one-hour album From Sleep in September 2015, an invited audience took to their sleeping bags in the Reading Room of London's Wellcome Collection museum/library of health science for a unique night's rest.

From midnight to 8am, Richter, a small string group (working in shifts) and a soprano singer performed the work's live premiere, which was given a record-breaking live broadcast on BBC Radio 3 - the longest uninterrupted piece of music they'd ever aired live. [To note for the download: there are occasional dropouts of a few seconds each - I can't remember now if this occurred during the recording, or if they're due to the limitations of the get_iplayer sound grabber or file converter that I used, when dealing with such a gargantuan file.]

In Richter's words, 'I think of Sleep as an experiment into how music and the mind can interact in this other state of consciousness, one we all spend decades of our lives completely immersed in, but which is so far rather poorly understood. I consulted with [American neuroscientist] David Eagleman on how music can relate to the sleep state and have incorporated our conversations in the compositional process of the work'.

The audience at the premiere were specifically invited to sleep through as much of the performance as they could, and then describe the sensations they experienced.  I've certainly spent one or two interesting nights sleeping through this recording (when I could manage the full night without my earphones falling out) and occasionally half-waking to the gentle soundscape.

The 31 sections of Sleep range from simple piano pulses, to deep electronics, gorgeous string arrangements and wordless flights for the soprano voice.  Needless to say, I've never heard the entire thing whilst fully awake - might give it a try some day, but I suspect Richter wouldn't approve.

Taking in the occasional random half-hour is fun, to pay closer attention to the construction of the different segments, and the microscopic development (or sometimes hypnotic non-development) within them.  Which I suspect is what Richter was trying to do with the release of the more manageable From Sleep - which I don't see around as much these days, but will probably order a copy at some point.

link, no pw - one mp3 file, 1.8GB :)

Album cover for the full studio recording