On October 04, 2019, Deutsche Grammophon will release VOYAGER: ESSENTIAL MAX RICHTER, the first ever collection of the acclaimed British composer’s work. The 43-track collection will be available as a double CD and e-album and contains work from across his vast catalogue, including studio albums such as 2004’s acclaimed The Blue Notebooks (described by Pitchfork as “one of the most affecting and universal contemporary classical records in recent memory”), 2012’s Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi - The Four Seasons, performed by award-winning British violinist Daniel Hope and Berlin’s renowned Konzerthaus Kammerorchester; and 2015’s ground-breaking, eight-and-a-half-hour magnum opus, SLEEP. Two previously unreleased bonus tracks from Sleep are also included in this new edition.
Additionally, the anthology offers a selection from Richter’s numerous film and TV scores, among them 2014’s The Leftovers, which garnered the International Film Music Critics Award; 2017’s Emmy-nominated Taboo; and last year’s Mary Queen Of Scots, which earned him the Hollywood Music in Media Award for Best Original Film Score.
VOYAGER contains music from 2010’s Infra, which originated as the celebrated score for Wayne McGregor’s ballet of the same name, performed at London’s Royal Opera House, as well as a version of In The Garden – originally featured on 2017’s Three Worlds: Music from Woolf Works, another ballet collaboration with McGregor – recorded at Spotify Studios in New York in 2017. Also included are Mercy, which was recorded live at Berlin’s Meistersaal by renowned American violinist Hilary Hahn, who first commissioned it for 2013’s Encores Project, and an interpretation by Mari Samuelsen of November from Richter’s 2002 debut, Memoryhouse – taken from her album Mari which was released earlier this year.
Richter, a graduate of London’s Royal Academy of Music and a former pupil of Luciano Berio, first earned a reputation during the 1990s, initially establishing himself with contemporary classical ensemble Piano Circus, which he co-founded, then broadening his horizons by performing with and writing for the genre-resisting Future Sound Of London and Roni Size’s Mercury Prize winning drum and bass collective Reprazent. His debut album, Memoryhouse, was recorded with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, but it was relatively unknown at first – in fact, the record was out of print by the time he released its follow-up, 2004’s The Blue Notebooks. It wasn’t until its re-release in 2014 that critics declared it “a landmark work of contemporary classical music” (The Independent).
With his early recordings, Richter forged a new path – blurring the lines between what was considered exclusively traditional or singularly modern. He’s since gone on to release a further six studio albums, as well as recording multiple soundtracks for film and TV, with his compositions not only enhancing movies by directors including Martin Scorsese, Denis Villeneuve and Michael Winterbottom, but also TV shows as varied as the BBC’s lauded 2005 documentary, Auschwitz: The Nazis And The Final Solution, and Nosedive, a 2016 episode of Charlie Brooker’s dystopian Black Mirror, directed by Joe Wright. Moreover, Richter has collaborated with artists in other fields, notably art installations, theatre and dance, working alongside Turner Prize nominee Darren Almond, the National Theatre of Scotland and – repeatedly – choreographer Wayne McGregor, currently Resident Choreographer of The Royal Ballet in London.
Having bridged the divide between electronic and classical music, Richter has achieved something that has altogether altered the musical landscape. VOYAGER: ESSENTIAL MAX RICHTER provides a vital, career-spanning summary of this innovative, inventive composer’s hugely influential work.
TRACKLISTING:
PART 1:
1. ON THE NATURE OF DAYLIGHT | The Blue Notebooks
2. A CATALOGUE OF AFTERNOONS | The Blue Notebooks
3. SPRING 0 | Recomposed by Max Richter:Vivaldi, The Four Seasons
4. SPRING 1 | Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi, The Four Seasons
5. AUTUMN MUSIC 2 | Songs From Before
6. MODULAR ASTRONOMY | Three Worlds: Music From Woolf Works
7. VLADIMIR’S BLUES | The Blue Notebooks
8. NOVEMBER | Memoryhouse | MARI
9. DREAM 3 (IN THE MIDST OF MY LIFE) | From Sleep
10. HOPE STRINGS ETERNAL | 24 Postcards In Full Colour
11. ICONOGRAPHY | The Blue Notebooks
12. CIRCLES FROM THE RUE SIMON-CRUBELLIER | 24 Postcards In Full Colour
13. INFRA 8 | Infra
14. WAR ANTHEM | Three Worlds: Music From Woolf Works
15. LULLABY FROM THE WESTCOAST SLEEPERS | 24 Postcards In Full Colour
16. SUNLIGHT | Songs From Before
17. IN THE GARDEN | Three Worlds: Music From Woolf Works
18. BROKEN SYMMETRIES FOR Y | 24 Postcards In Full Colour
19. MERCY | Retrospective
BONUS
20. DREAM SOLO | SLEEP
21. PATH SOLO | SLEEP
PART 2:
1. BEGINNING AND ENDING | The Congress
2. THE DEPARTURE | The Leftovers
3. THE INEXORABLE ADVANCE OF MR. DELANEY | Taboo
4. THE YOUNG MARINER | Henry May Long
5. TRIGGER | White Boy Rick
6. ELENA & LILA | My Brilliant Friend
7. A BLESSING | The Leftovers
8. RIDE TO MARATHON STATION | White Boy Rick
9. LAMENTATION FOR A LOST LIFE | Taboo
10. THE MIND’S EYE | Never Look Away
11. WHERE WE BELONG | Hostiles
12. A NEW GENERATION | Mary Queen Of Scots
13. ON REFLECTION | Nosedive I Black Mirror
14. WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS | Miss Sloane
15. YOUR REFLECTION | My Brilliant Friend
16. AND KNOW THE PLACE FOR THE FIRST TIME | The Leftovers
17. A WOMAN ALONE | Hostiles
18. OUR REFLECTION | My Brilliant Friend
19. WERSHE & SON | White Boy Rick
20. MISS SLOANE SOLO | Miss Sloane
21. THE DEPARTURE | The Leftovers | Piano Book
22. I WILL NOT FORGET YOU | Testament Of Youth
Soloists:
DANIEL HOPE (PART 1, 3+4)
MARI SAMUELSEN (PART 1, 8)
HILARY HAHN (PART 1, 19)
LANG LANG (PART 2, 21)
2019 TOUR DATES
- 12 Oct. Royce Hall – Los Angeles, CA
- 13 Oct. Bing Concert Hall – Palo Alto, CA
- 14 Oct. Herbst Theater – San Francisco, CA
- 16 Oct. Moore Theatre – Seattle, WA
- 18 Oct. Moody Theater – Austin, TX
- 19 Oct. Harris Theater – Chicago, IL
- 20 Oct. Playstation Theater – NYC, NY
- 27 Nov. Laeiszhalle – Hamburg, Germany
- 28 Nov. Alte Oper – Frankfurt, Germany
- 29 Nov. Tonhalle – Düsseldorf, Germany