The German-born British composer Max Richter has announced his latest endeavor—one of the longest single pieces in the history of classical music. Richter describes it as "an eight-hour lullaby" that's appropriately titled SLEEP. Watch a teaser below.
The full eight-hour version will be available digitally on September 4 via Deutsche Grammophon. A one-hour adaptation of the piece, from SLEEP, will be released on CD, vinyl, and digitally the same day. “You could say that the short one is meant to be listened to and the long one is meant to be heard while sleeping,” said Richter in a statement.
It's appropriate, then, that the full eight-hour piece will be premiered to an audience lying in beds. The world premiere happens in Berlin this September at a concert that will go from midnight to 8 a.m. The audience will be given beds instead of seats. That's right: It's a classical music slumber party.
Holy shit, eight hours. Max expects a lot from me.
It’s meant to be listened while sleeping. There will be live performances of these pieces, while people sleep. Judging by your uninformed comment, Max expects nothing at all from you, but if you’re curious, there’s also a one hour piece for day listening. Watch the short film above to get an idea about this project.
I still see @hilary‘s point, 8 hours is a lot @zerosixtyseven
However you decide to listen to the work.
Really looking forward to hearing this and I’m so glad it was added to the site. Diverse crowd we got here. Shout out to @jimmymcn
I kind of get Nils Frahm and Gonzales, but this addition surprised me.