Home » Stories » Max Richter's 'Voices' takes its theme from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights / iNews

Stories for August 04, 2020

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    John Finbury - American Nocturnes is a collection of evocative pieces that spotlights the composer's mastery in an intimate setting / Anne Carlini
     
    Posted At : August 4, 2020 12:00 AM

    Produced and arranged by Finbury (an American composer based in Andover, MA), Bob Patton, and co-produced by Emilio D. Miler, American Nocturnes (out now via Green Flash Music) is a collection of eleven evocative pieces that spotlights the composer's mastery in an intimate setting. Featuring some rather unorthodox instrumentation, not least a harmonica and an accordion, together with guitar, cello and piano, the album also embraces moments of improvisation amongst the melodic works. This quite alluring appealing album rounds out with the soulful, harmonica-led 'I'll Pray For You' (featuring Roni Eytan), the stunning accordion work of Vitor Gonçalves on 'My Hometown,' and then closes on a solo piano rendition of 'Waltz for Patty.' In his own words: "This project is a collection of songs I have composed over the past fifteen years. It is music inspired by my historical listening and piano playing experiences including the Chopin Nocturnes, desert island piano music of unsurpassed beauty." "That is what I am after, and why I feature the piano in all the tracks and call the songs Nocturnes. The emotions in this music are strong." READ THE FULL Anne Carlini REVIEW

  • Maria Schneider - Data Lords makes 'NPR Music's No. 1 Albums And Songs Of July'
     
    Posted At : August 4, 2020 12:00 AM

    The musical tastes of the NPR Music crew are a delightful jumble. On this edition of All Songs Considered, we pick our favorite music released in July 2020. From Nate Chinen, WBGO - Newark NJ
    Long before we saw the early signs of a reckoning from big tech companies, the illustrious composer-bandleader Maria Schneider was sounding the alarm. But how do you translate an argument about intellectual property and data mining into the realm of large-ensemble jazz? On the title track of her astounding new double album, Schneider answers that question with a gathering mass of sound, a mounting sense of dread and some hard-stuttering rhythmic effects. SEE THE NPR PAGE

  • Laila Baila plays 'Satellite' from 'Out of the Dust' on 89.9WUCF - Live From Studio A
     
    Posted At : August 4, 2020 12:00 AM

    Laila Biali has been winning over fans and critics alike for years. Her first JUNO nomination came back in 2011 for the album Tracing Light. In 2019, Biali took home the JUNO award for "Best Vocal Jazz Album." Known for her engaging stage presence and popular appeal, Biali's music fills the space in between traditional jazz and contemporary pop - alongside artists like Brit sensation Jamie Cullum and fellow Canadians Nikki Yanofsky, and Diana Krall. On her new album Out of the Dust, Biali addresses the ups and downs of life (including some very personal recent downs), but always with a positive outlook for the road ahead. Join Kayonne Riley as she speaks with Canadian pianist and singer-songwriter Laila Biali about her solo Live From Studio A performance and the song "Satellite" from 'Out of the Dust.' They chat about the song's origin and development, and, staying connected to audiences during the pandemic. Live From Studio A: Laila Biali airs Thursday, August 6 at 8:30 p.m. on WUCF TV. Watch the attached video

  • 2002 - Celtic Fairy Dream is #3 'New age music guide - Best New Age Music Albums So Far for 2020'
     
    Posted At : August 4, 2020 12:00 AM

    2020 has been a different kind of year, no doubt about that. But when it comes to New Age music, this year has been amazing! The age of Covid19 has given us some truly extraordinary albums. Enjoy this list of top five New Age music releases from the first half of 2020! The list has been compiled based on the popularity of the releases on Newagemusic.guide, your votes on our request page, and review ratings. At the end of the year, we will publish our usual Top 10 Albums list (here is the list for 2019) – where the below albums for sure will play an important part. But rest assured, 2020 has plenty of more excellent music in store for us! "Celtic Fairy Dream" by 2002, the follow-up to the group's highly successful "Celtic Fairy Lullaby" (2016), couldn‘t have been released at a better time. Taking a break from negative news has never felt better. Indeed, 2002 has always been one of the best New Age music bands, but today it is more apparent than ever that Randy and Pamela Copus' daughter Sarah lifts the band to incredible new heights. Take my word for it: Even Enya would be amazed by "Celtic Fairy Dream". It has musical magic dust sprinkled all over. SEE THE New age music guide PAGE The fairy theme aside, "Celtic Fairy Dream" is really a down-to-earth release with many classical inspirations that will give joy to new and old fans alike. It is a great installment in 2002's Celtic Fairy series, and the songs "Castle of Dromore" and "The Green Fields of Autumn" are destined to become New Age music hits. It is tempting to ask; When will 2002 release an "Orinoco Flow", "May It Be" or "Caribbean Blue"? My answer is simple; It is a matter of time. "Only time."

  • Michael Whalen - Sacred Spaces is #1 'New age music guide - Best New Age Music Albums So Far for 2020'
     
    Posted At : August 4, 2020 12:00 AM

    2020 has been a different kind of year, no doubt about that. But when it comes to New Age music, this year has been amazing! The age of Covid19 has given us some truly extraordinary albums. Enjoy this list of top five New Age music releases from the first half of 2020! The list has been compiled based on the popularity of the releases on Newagemusic.guide, your votes on our request page, and review ratings. At the end of the year, we will publish our usual Top 10 Albums list (here is the list for 2019) – where the below albums for sure will play an important part. But rest assured, 2020 has plenty of more excellent music in store for us! When the pandemic started, Michael Whalen's "Sacred Spaces" was like an answer to a prayer. The album is also profoundly existential in nature, dealing with the search for a higher power. The French expression tour de force comes to mind many times while listening to the album – partly because of the highly creative soundscapes and partly thanks to Whalen's exceptional melodic talent. Last year Michael Whalen released the solo piano album "Cupid Blindfolded", to high acclaim and great reviews. About this year's album, Michael says: "Over the past decade, I realized I am 100 percent responsible for whatever my relationship with a higher being might be. When I first had the idea to do an album about the search for a higher power, I was imagining an orchestral project - a symphony. There was a point where I ran out of gas, maybe because part of me didn't really want an answer. A couple of years ago, I revisited some themes I'd written and thought that maybe I should do this as an electronic project." The result is "Sacred Spaces". It sounds like a cliché, but "Sacred Spaces" is what the world needs right now.  SEE THE 'New age music guide PAGE

  • Daniel Barenboim - Elgar 'Sea Pictures,' 'Falstaff' is a lovely performance / theartsdesk
     
    Posted At : August 1, 2020 12:00 AM

    It's to mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča's huge credit that I found myself listening to the texts Elgar set in his Sea Pictures more closely than usual. She's superb – rich-toned, and with excellent diction, her efforts highlighting my problem with this song cycle, namely that the poems set are a tad variable. "Where Corals Lie" and "Sea Slumber Song" work for me, but "The Swimmer" is too wordy by half. This is still a lovely performance, Daniel Barenboim's well-drilled Staatskapelle Berlin nail Elgar's style, the textures never too thick. All fine, though you really need this disc for Barenboim's Falstaff. This long, Straussian "symphonic study" was a flop when premiered in 1913, though Elgar claimed to have enjoyed writing it more than anything else he'd written. It's a grower, a piece that needs repeated hearings to work its magic. I'm always floored by the quirkiness of the opening theme, an earworm that's impossible to sing. Try it and see. Barenboim understands this music's subtlety and psychological depth, and his performance has both belly laughs and pathos. Falstaff's descent into sleep and the bittersweet "Dream Interlude" are sweetly done here, and Elgar's curt ending is painful but appropriate. It's played with real warmth and affection, the Berlin brass and winds especially impressive.  READ THE FULL artsdesk ARTICLE

  • Max Richter's 'Voices' envisions a better world / NPR Q&A
     
    Posted At : August 1, 2020 12:00 AM

    When thinking about putting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to music on Voices, Composer Max Richter tried to capture the essence of "the world we haven't made yet." Richter has scored soundtracks and had his music placed across film and television, including recent Hollywood movies such as Mary Queen of Scots, Hostiles and Ad Astra. But Richter's also a composer who's not afraid to take on political issues in his music. In his previous works, he's responded to the conflict in Kosovo, the Iraq War and the 2005 London terrorist attacks. On his latest album, Voices, he takes inspiration from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. NPR's Gemma Watters spoke to Max Richter about the echo between the post-World War II world and today, finding a narrator after watching If Beale Street Could Talk and the way the album fits into the present moment, even though he started work on it 10 years ago. Listen to the interview

Top 10 for Aug

  • Ilan Eshkeri & Shigeru Umebayashi :

    Ghost of Tsushima

     Milan Records today releases GHOST OF TSUSHIMA (MUSIC FROM THE VIDEO GAME) with music by ILAN ESHKERI and SHIGERU UMEBAYASHI.
  • Max Richter :

    Voices

     Over a decade after its inception, ground-breaking composer Max Richter announces the release of VOICES – a major new recording project inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
  • Marcin Wasilewski Trio Joe Lovano :

    Arctic Riff

     The first-time teaming of Poland's dynamic Marcin Wasilewski Trio and big-toned US tenorist Joe Lovano brings forth special music of concentrated, deep feeling, in which lyricism and strength seem ideally balanced.
  • Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile :

    Not Our First Goat Rodeo

     Sony Music Masterworks today releases Not Our First Goat Rodeo, the long-awaited follow-up album to the GRAMMY Award-winning The Goat Rodeo Sessions, with Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile.
  • Harry Connick Jr :

    Stars Still Shine

     GRAMMY and Emmy Award-winning singer and actor Harry Connick, Jr.
  • Bettye LaVette :

    Blackbirds

     Blues Hall of Famer Bettye LaVette has decided to release her stirring rendition of "Strange Fruit" ahead of schedule as it says as much about the history of American racism and the state of the country today.
  • Terence Blanchard :

    DA 5 BLOODS OMPS

     Milan Records today releases DA 5 BLOODS (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SCORE) with music composed by six-time GRAMMY® Award-winning trumpeter and composer TERENCE BLANCHARD.
  • Jimmy Heath :

    Love Letter

     Verve Records releases Love Letter, the first all-ballads album from magisterial tenor saxophonist-composer Jimmy Heath.
  • Ludovico Einaudi :

    12 Songs From Home

     Ludovico Einaudi today releases a special 12-track digital collection, ‘12 Songs From Home', out digitally on Decca Records on 8thMay 2020 with artwork drawn by the composer.
  • Christopher Tin :

    To Shiver The Sky

     TWO-TIME GRAMMY AWARD-WINNING COMPOSER CHRISTOPHER TIN SIGNS TO DECCA GOLD ANNOUNCES MAJOR LABEL DEBUT ALBUM  - TO SHIVER THE SKY Recognized as the first artist to win a Grammy Award for music written for a video game, composer Christopher Tin will release a new album titled To Shiver the Sky on August 21.

Max Richter's 'Voices' takes its theme from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights / iNews

Posted: July 30, 2020 12:00 AM | By: Admin
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There are enough records in the world already, thinks the ­composer Max Richter.

So when he writes music, there has to be a "good reason". So far, those have included the Kosovo War, which he tackled on his debut album Memoryhouse in 2002, the Iraq War, the subject of 2004's The Blue Notebooks, and the 7/7 bombings, on 2010's Infra. 2015's eight-and-a-half-hour concept album Sleep was intended as a break from the pressures of the digital age and became a classical phenomenon, streamed more than 450 million times.

His latest, Voices, began with the contemplative violin and piano-led "Mercy", which takes its inspiration from the "Torture Memos", which revealed how prisoners were treated at Guantánamo Bay, that had left him "dumbstruck". "It felt like the world had gone wrong in a new way, and I wrote ‘Mercy' as a way to figure that out. A bigger piece of protest music was set in motion right then."

The resulting album takes its theme from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, which set the aspirational blueprint for better times after the Second World War.

Music has always been a rebellion for Richter. He was born in Germany, and his family moved to Bedford when he was four. He took piano lessons, but dropped out of school at 16 because he hated it.

READ THE FULL iNews ARTICLE

Crossover Media Projects with Max Richter

  • Max Richter

    Voices

    Over a decade after its inception, ground-breaking composer Max Richter announces the release of VOICES – a major new recording project inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The first single from his uplifting new work, which he describes as "a place to think and reflect", is out today via Decca Records. It is the latest album from the innovative, billion-streaming artist behind landmark 2015 composition SLEEP, which continues to evolve five years on with the launch of a new app. Available to download now, the app enables listeners to reimagine the 8-hour Deutsche Grammophon recording in custom-made musical sessions to help with focus, meditation and sleep. At the heart of both VOICES and SLEEP is a profound sense of global community, born out of Richter's career-long view of music as activism and his desire to unite audiences worldwide.

  • Max Richter

    Never Look Away OST

    Max Richter's score for the 2018 drama Never Look Away is released on DG. The latest from director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarch (Lives of Others), Never Look Away is inspired by the life of artist Gerhard Richter through the story of an art student in post-war East Germany. The film was selected as the German entry for Best Foreign Language Film for the Academy Awards and stars Tom Schiling, Sebastian Koch and Paula Beer.

  • Max Richter

    Mary Queen of Scots OMPS

    Composer Max Richter has written a compelling and dramatic score for the upcoming historical drama, Mary Queen of Scots.  Directed by Josie Rourke and starring Margot Robbie and Saoirse Ronan, the movie explores the turbulent life of the charismatic Mary Stuart and her attempt to overthrow her cousin, Elizabeth I, Queen of England. The lavish orchestral score features a full orchestra and eclectic vocal pieces.

  • Max Richter

    White Boy Rick OST

    Max Richter wrote the score for White Boy Rick, the story of teenager Richard Wershe Jr., who became an undercover informant for the FBI during the 1980s and was ultimately arrested for drug-trafficking and sentenced to life in prison.  Directed by Yann Demange and starring Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Jason Leigh, the film arrives in theaters September 14.

  • Max Richter

    The Blue Notebooks

    DG releases a new, deluxe edition of Max Richter's The Blue Notebooks to celebrate its 15th anniversary with brand new artwork as well as new arrangements, remixes and a previously unreleased new track. Written in 2003, The Blue Notebooks was originally composed in protest to the 2003 invasion of Iraq and features readings by Tilda Swinton of selections from Kafka's The Blue Octavo Notebooks and Czesław Miłosz's Hymn of the Pearl and Unattainable Earth.

  • Max Richter

    Hostiles

    The latest film from director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart), Hostiles stars Christian Bale as a legendary Army captain in 1892 who reluctantly agrees to escort a Cheyenne chief (Wes Studi) and his family through dangerous territory. The Hostiles soundtrack features music by composer Max Richter (The Leftovers, Sleep). Richter has received both Grammy and Emmy nominations for his work in film and television. Recent awards include The European Film Academy Award for Waltz with Bashir, the International Film Music Critics Award for The Leftovers, and a German Film Award and Australian Film Critics Award for Lore. 

  • Max Richter

    Three Worlds - Music from Woolf Works

    Following the success of SLEEP, Max Richter reveals his latest recording project – a new album entitled - Three Worlds: Music from Woolf Works. It's drawn from his music to Wayne McGregor's award-winning Royal Ballet production Woolf Works – inspired by the works of Virginia Woolf – and will be released on Deutsche Grammophon on January 27, 2017. Woolf Works returns to the Royal Opera House in London, with performances beginning on January 21 and continuing on February 2,4,8,11,13 & 14. There will also be a worldwide cinema broadcast on February 8 with subsequent screenings. 

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