Max Richter "Flowers of Herself"
Max Richter - Flowers of Herself
"Speaking in complete and utter honesty, "Flowers of Herself" has been the most engaging orchestral work I've heard come out of the contemporary classical music scene in years."
"Flowers of Herself" is the opening track on Richter's recent album Exiles.
A work which celebrates the hustle and bustle of a heavily populated city may seen untimely considering the past year and a half. However, the beautifully inspired work actually celebrates the business of walking through downtown London and feels completely natural and comfortable the entire time. The work is meant to musically accompany the first five pages from Virginia Woolf's famous 1925 novel, Mrs. Dalloway, which by the way conveniently entered public domain in the United States earlier this year. The complete album is available for free streaming in both audio and video formats and I highly recommend taking the time to listen and experience the full set of pieces. "Flowers of Herself" was also released with a cinematic beauty of an official music video, something which while not often expected of classical works, contributed to the overall aesthetic of the music. Studio Richter Mahr made the wise decision to have three small, independent filmmakers, Samuel Recko, Annick Wolfers, and Sebastien Rabas, to collaborate on the incredibly professional and visually interested final project.
The vibrant piece is constructed using minimalist-inspired, yet incredibly rhythmic, motivic cells which expand and build upon each other as the music develops. Richter effectively uses these compositional techniques to mimic the sounds of a busy city, such as London in this case, slowly waking out of its nightly slumber and growing into the vast industrious energy of an intense major city. Again, Richter demonstrates his highly technical orchestrational chops in his wonderfully composed music, clearly pulling from his background and expertise in film scoring, while never once giving up an ounce of his personal artistic vision. The music flutters between timbres and sounds, never quite settling into one direction, but rather creating a full atmosphere of beautiful uncertainty.
"Flowers", while being only a few minutes in length, grabs every single listener's attention immediately, and forces one to listen, without distraction, for its entirety. Speaking in complete and utter honesty, "Flowers of Herself" has been the most engaging orchestral work I've heard come out of the contemporary classical music scene in years. Richter has again created contemporary music which will be used to inspire future composers, and will most certainly come down in history as an electronic and romantic expansion of the post-minimalists such as John Adams.
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