Composer Max Richter doesn’t want a boisterous standing ovation or to hear loud cheers during the live performance of his album, “Sleep.” He prefers the quiet sounds of breathing – or even a bit of snoring.
Richter will bring “Sleep,” an eight-hour classical music experience, to Grand Park in Downtown Los Angeles on Friday, July 27 and Saturday, July 28. However, this isn’t a standard concert. Guests are issued cots instead of seats, are encouraged to wear loose fitting and comfortable clothing and are expected to fall sleep as the overnight performance runs from 10:30 p.m.-6:30 a.m. on both nights.
“There is almost always some snoring,” Richter said during a recent phone interview. “I get sort of a weird sense of validation when I hear it. That makes me really happy, actually. It’s quite comforting as well, almost like having a cat purring.”
Richter was born in West Germany and currently resides in London, England. He has written and composed music for theatrical performances, operas, ballets and feature films, but “Sleep,” is a body of work based on the neuroscience of sleep, on which Richter consulted neuroscientist David Eagleman about how the brain functions during sleep.
“The origins of ‘Sleep’ really go back to the lullaby tradition,” Richter explained. “Music and sleep have been connected throughout human civilization and it’s really universal. I guess the neuroscience sheds a kind of light on that from a scientific standpoint as people have done research to show that certain kinds of sounds can be used to support and promote the kinds of healthy aspects of sleeping like learning and memory consolidation. There’s a lot of interesting research to it and I wanted to make a piece which made that connection between sleeping and music and also a piece which could work as a holiday really from our data-saturated world.”
Though he’s as guilty as the rest of us about not unplugging from technology as often as he should, Richter admits that he doesn’t have a lot of trouble sleeping. He does the typical stuff and avoids later evening stimulants, makes sure to buy dark curtains and turns off and tucks away any tech devices before bedtime.
“Around the world we are very much sort of always ‘on’ now,” he said. “We have this 24/7 screen-based culture and sleep is kind of eroded by that and we find it increasingly difficult to switch off. One of the aspects of the piece is to sort of make an environment which supports that kind of switching off and stepping off that hamster wheel for a moment.”
Richter performs at the piano live with some 215 pages of sheet music for the duration of the show and is accompanied by musicians and singers that played on the “Sleep” album, which was originally released via Deutsche Grammophon in 2015. “Sleep” has been performed live in New York City, at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, as well as in London, Berlin and Sydney. However, “Sleep” will be presented for the very first time outdoors when it comes to Los Angeles.
“We’re going to have this whole world of city sound interacting with us so that’s going to be fun,” he said. “The other thing that is exciting is that we’ll have the sky. Of course, being in a concert hall you’re looking at the ceiling, but hopefully it’s clear and we’ll have some amazing stars, maybe we’ll see some planes and then the light of the sun will come up and that’s huge.”
For the first seven hours of the performance, the music is pretty low frequency and as the event comes to an end and the sun begins to rise, the music picks up and the frequency gets a little higher in the final hour, much like those non-jarring, pleasant-sounding sunlight alarm clocks.
“One of the things that’s interesting is that you get a community forming at the gig,” he noted. “Sleeping is normally a private and intimate thing and you’re sleeping now with hundreds of strangers overnight and it’s like you’ve gone through something together. It’s almost like a little campfire thing and in the morning they all get up and go breakfasting.”
The Music Center Presents Max Richter’s “SLEEP”
When: 10:30 p.m. Friday, July 27 and Saturday, July 28
Where: Grand Park, 200 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles
Tickets: $60-$80 for sections A and B with cot included. Tickets can be purchased in person at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Box Office at 135 N. grand Ave., Los Angeles, by phone at 213-972-0711 or online at musiccenter.org/sleep.
