Max Richter

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This article is about the music composer. For the member of the Nazi party, see Max Scheubner-Richter.
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Max Richter
Max Richter at Cadogan Hall.jpg
Max Richter (center) at the Cadogan Hall in 2010
Background information
Born 1966 (age 46–47)
Germany
Occupations Composer, pianist, producer
Years active 1990s–present
Labels Fat Cat Records
Website maxrichtermusic.com

Max Richter (born 1966) is a British composer.

Contents

Early career [edit]

Richter studied composition and piano at the University of Edinburgh, the Royal Academy of Music, and with Luciano Berio in Florence.[1][not in citation given] After finishing his studies, Richter co-founded the contemporary classical ensemble Piano Circus.[2] He stayed with the group for ten years, commissioning and performing works by Arvo Pärt, Brian Eno, Philip Glass, Julia Wolfe, and Steve Reich. The ensemble was signed to Decca/Argo, producing five albums.

In 1996, Max collaborated with Future Sound of London on their album Dead Cities, beginning as a pianist, but ultimately working on several tracks, as well as co-writing one track (titled Max). Richter subsequently worked with the band over a period of two years, also contributing to the albums The Isness and The Peppermint Tree and Seeds of Superconsciousness. In 2000, Richter worked with Mercury Prize winner Roni Size on the Reprazent album In the Mode. Richter produced Vashti Bunyan's 2005 album Lookaftering[3] and Kelli Ali's 2008 album Rocking Horse.[4]

Solo work [edit]

Memoryhouse (2002) [edit]

In 2002, Richter released his solo debut Memoryhouse, an experimental album of "documentary music" recorded with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, which explores real and imaginary stories and histories.[5] It combines ambient sounds, voices, and poetry readings and includes the tracks 'Sarajevo', 'November' and 'Last Days'. BBC Music described the album as "a masterpiece in neoclassical composition."[6] It went out of print several years later, but was re-released in 2009. Four tracks—Europe, After the Rain, The Twins (Prague), Fragment, and Embers—were used in the six-part 2005 BBC documentary Auschwitz: The Nazis and the Final Solution produced by Laurence Rees.[7]

The Blue Notebooks (2004) [edit]

On his second album The Blue Notebooks, released in 2004, actress Tilda Swinton reads from Kafka’s Blue Octavo and other shadow journals.[8]

Songs from Before (2006) [edit]

In 2006, he released his third solo album, Songs from Before, which features Robert Wyatt reading texts by Haruki Murakami.[9]

24 Postcards in Full Colour (2008) [edit]

Richter released his fourth solo album 24 Postcards in Full Colour, a collection of 24 classically-composed miniatures for ringtones, in 2008.[10] The pieces are a series of variations on the basic material, scored for strings, piano, and electronics.

Infra (2010) [edit]

Richter's 2010 album, Infra, is an extension of his 25-minute score for a ballet choreographed by Wayne McGregor and staged at the Royal Opera House.[11] Infra is composed of music written for piano, electronics and string quintet, the full performance score, as well as material that subsequently developed from the construction of the album.[12] Pitchfork described the album as "achingly gorgeous"[13] and The Independent newspaper characterised Infra as "a journey in 13 episodes, emerging from a blur of static and finding its way in a repeated phrase that grows in loveliness."[14]

Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi, The Four Seasons (2012) [edit]

Richter’s recomposed version of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons was premiered in the UK at the Barbican Centre on 31 October 2012, performed by the Britten Sinfonia, conducted by André de Ridder and with violinist Daniel Hope.[15] Although Richter said that he had discarded 75% of Vivaldi’s original material,[16] the parts he does use are phased and looped, emphasising his grounding in postmodern and minimalist music.[17] The album topped the iTunes classical chart in the UK, Germany and the US. [18]

Film and television work [edit]

Richter has composed numerous film soundtracks. He executed the score to Ari Folman’s Golden Globe-winning film Waltz with Bashir in 2007,[19] supplanting the standard orchestral soundtrack with synth-based sounds. Max Richter also composed music for the independent feature film Henry May Long, starring Randy Sharp and Brian Barnhart, back in 2008. Richter wrote the music for Feo Aladag's film Die Fremde (with additional music by Stéphane Moucha).[20]

In 2010, Dinah Washington's This Bitter Earth was remixed with Richter's On the Nature of Daylight for the Martin Scorsese film Shutter Island.[21] In July 2010, On The Nature Of Daylight and Vladimir's Blues featured throughout the BBC Two two-part drama Dive, which was co-written by Bafta award winning Dominic Savage and Simon Stevens. On The Nature Of Daylight was also featured in an episode of HBO's television series Luck.[22] Richter also wrote the soundtrack to Peter Richardson’s documentary, How to Die in Oregon,[23] and the score to Les Impardonnables (2011) directed by André Téchiné.[24] An excerpt of the song Sarajevo from his 2002 album Memoryhouse was used in the international trailer for the Ridley Scott film Prometheus. The track, November, from the same album, was featured in the international trailer for Terrence Malick's 2012 film, To the Wonder, and in the trailer for Clint Eastwood's 2011 film, J. Edgar. Films featuring Max's music released in 2011 include French drama Elle s’appelait Sarah by Gilles Paquet-Brenner, and David MacKenzie's romantic thriller Perfect Sense. In 2012 he composed the scores for Cate Shortland's 2012 Australian-German war thriller Lore and Disconnect, directed by Henry Alex Rubin. Richter is currently composing the score to Ari Folman’s new film The Congress, which is set for release in 2013.

Collaborations [edit]

Richter wrote the score to Infra as part of a Royal Ballet-commissioned collaboration with dancer Wayne McGregor and artist Julian Opie. The production was staged at the Royal Opera House in London in 2008. In 2010, Richter's soundscape The Anthropocine formed part of Darren Almond’s film installation at the White Cube gallery in London. The composer has also collaborated with digital art collective rAndom International on two projects, contributing scores to the installations Future Self (2012),[25] staged at the MADE space in Berlin, and Rain Room (2012/13) at London's Barbican Centre.[26]

Solo discography [edit]

Film scores [edit]

Film Year Director Notes
Gender Trouble 2003 Roz Mortimer
Geheime Geschichten 2003 Christine Wiegand
Soundproof 2006 Edmund Coulthard
Work 2006 Jim Hosking
Butterfly 2007 Tracey Gardiner
Nadzieja 2007 Stanislaw Mucha
Frankie Howerd: Rather You Than Me 2008 John Alexander
Henry May Long 2008 Randy Sharp
Waltz with Bashir
(Vals Im Bashir)		 2008 Ari Folman Won "Best Composer" at the 21st Annual European Awards
Lost and Found 2008 Philip Hunt
Penelope
(Penelopa)		 2009 Ben Ferris
La vie sauvage des animaux domestiques
(Die wilde Farm)		 2009 Dominique Garing & Frédéric Goupil
The First Line
(La prima linea)		 2009 Renato De Maria
My Words, My Lies - My Love
(Lila, Lila)		 2009 Alain Gsponer
When We Leave
(Die Fremde)		 2010 Feo Aladağ With Stéphane Moucha
My Trip to Al-Qaeda 2010 Alex Gibney
Womb 2010 Benedek Fliegauf
Sarah's Key
(Elle s'appelait Sarah)		 2010 Gilles Paquet-Brenner
The Gift 2010 Andrew Griffin With Hildur Guðnadóttir
How to Die in Oregon 2010 Peter D. Richardson
Perfect Sense 2011 David Mackenzie
Impardonnables 2011 André Téchiné
Nach der Stille 2011 Stephanie Bürger, Jule Ott
& Manal Abdallah		 With Sven Kaiser
Edwin Boyd: Citizen Gangster 2011 Nathan Morlando
Spanien 2012 Anja Salomonowitz
Lore 2012 Cate Shortland
Jiro Dreams of Sushi 2011 David Gleb With Jiro Ono

Awards and nominations [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ "Max Richter". FatCat Records. Retrieved 19 August 2011. 
  2. ^ Mark Pappenheim (24 November 1993). "MUSIC / Many hands make light work". London: The Independent. Retrieved 2011-10-19. 
  3. ^ Adam Park (11 October 2006). "The Richter Scale". Boomkat. Retrieved 2012-09-24. 
  4. ^ "Biography Kelli Ali". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2011-10-21. 
  5. ^ "Max Richter Memoryhouse". Retrieved 2011-10-21. 
  6. ^ {{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/vrzb |title=Max Richter Recording The Blue Notebooks/
  7. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0941057/
  8. ^ Paul Tingen (January 2005). "Max Richter Recording The Blue Notebooks". Sound On Sound. Retrieved 2011-10-21. 
  9. ^ "SONGS FROM BEFORE • Max Richter". Puremusic. Retrieved 2011-10-21. 
  10. ^ Michael Crumsho (22 October 2008). "Max Richter - "Berlin By Overnight" (24 Postcards In Full Colour)". Dusted Magazine. Retrieved 2011-10-21. 
  11. ^ Gilbert, Jenny (16 November 2008). The Independent (London) http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/royal-ballet-royal-opera-house-londonbrrambert-dance-company-sadlers-wells-london-1020245.html |url= missing title (help). 
  12. ^ http://drownedinsound.com/releases/15534/reviews/4140557
  13. ^ http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14452-infra/.  Missing or empty |title= (help)
  14. ^ http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/reviews/album-max-richter-infra-fat-cat-records-2046930.html.  Missing or empty |title= (help)
  15. ^ "Max Richter: Vivaldi Recomposed". 31 October 2012. Retrieved 2012-12-10. 
  16. ^ "Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi, The Four Seasons". Retrieved 2012-12-27. 
  17. ^ Tania Halban (28 November 2012). "Recomposed or refragmented?". Retrieved 2013-02-01. 
  18. ^ http://www.klassikakzente.de/aktuell/uebersicht/news/article:210836/chart-erfolg-fuer-max-richters-vivaldi-recomposed-in-den-usa
  19. ^ http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/2009/02/richters-scale-scoring-waltz-with-bashir.html
  20. ^ http://www.discogs.com/Max-Richter-Stéphane-Moucha-Die-Fremde-Original-Soundtrack/release/2412419
  21. ^ http://newcityfilm.com/2010/02/17/a-life-in-the-mind-with-shutter-island-scorsese-goes-for-baroque-review/
  22. ^ http://www.hbo.com/luck/episodes/01/04-episode-04/music.html
  23. ^ http://criterioncast.com/2011/03/26/joshua-reviews-peter-richardsons-how-to-die-in-oregon-sxsw-2011-review/
  24. ^ http://www.arte.tv/de/3911890,CmC=3913052.html
  25. ^ http://www.designboom.com/art/random-international-future-self-at-made-space-berlin/
  26. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/oct/03/random-international-rain-barbican/

External links [edit]

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