Max Richter - Exiles

Exiles features expansive reimaginings of tracks composed by Richter for a Virginia Woolf-inspired ballet, Fendi fashion runways, Hollywood blockbusters, Golden Globe-winning documentaries, and a record loved by David Bowie, as well as Richter’s 33-minute work also named Exiles.

Profoundly moved by the tragedy of the migrant crisis, Richter chose to channel his compassion into a piece for Nederlands Dans Theater. His ballet score Exiles grew from a conversation with the Dutch company’s resident choreographers Sol León and Paul Lightfoot.

“Composing is a way to talk about the things I care about, so when Paul and Sol asked me to write a new ballet for them I immediately began to think about subject matter; what exactly should a new work made in Europe in 2017 talk about?” recalls Richter. “Reflecting on contemporary society, I decided to make a work on the universal subject of journeys … Many of us are lucky enough to be able to influence where we are going, but for an increasing number there are very few choices: the physical journey is a necessity in order for the journey forward through time to continue at all.”

The world premiere recording of Richter’s composition is central to his latest album, EXILES. Also comprising brand-new orchestral versions of some of his best-known earlier works, the album was recorded in Tallinn in 2019 by Kristjan Järvi and the Baltic Sea Philharmonic, an orchestra that prides itself on fostering cross-border unity and artistic innovation.

Richter said, “The Baltic Sea Philharmonic is a really interesting orchestra, it’s of young players from all the nations around the Baltic Sea so that obviously includes former Western European countries, former Eastern European countries, so it’s a little bit of a social project. It has this ‘peacemaking’ function, people being able to talk to each other in a creative way. It struck me that it would be nice to have that orchestra play music that matched that theme.”

Three of the newly orchestrated tracks are, like Exiles, what Richter refers to as “activist music”. On the Nature of Daylight, arguably his most famous composition, began life in 2003 as part of his second album, The Blue Notebooks, a heartfelt and emotional response to the outbreak of the Iraq War. On the Nature of Daylight has inspired artists of many different disciplines and Richter has endorsed its use in select films and TV shows including Arrival, The Handmaid’s Tale and Shutter Island.

These recordings offer new trips through existing material with large orchestral versions of chamber music, and some smaller formation recordings. Max Richter said, “On the Nature of Daylight was originally five strings and now it’s over 65 strings so it has a different texture, a different energy, a different kind of sonic fingerprint. The orchestral version is a different emotional register, it’s a bigger canvas. In the quintet you really feel that someone is speaking quietly just to you, but with the orchestra it’s a broader dialogue.”