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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Sleep, by Max Richter

October 4, 2019

Some artists chase fame. On others, it descends. The German-born British composer and all-around keyboardist Max Richter, whose soundtrack currently graces the Brad Pitt space odyssey Ad Astra, belongs to the latter variety. Like Nature’s sounds at Nature’s gentlest, his music makes no demands on a listener’s attention yet invites it and rewards it. For his Chinese debut, Richter offers, with his ensemble, a rare live full-length account of his magnum opus Sleep. And it’s in the open air, by the Great Wall. Attendance is strictly limited to 300, each listener provided not with a chair but a bed for eight hours of self-guided snoozing. Richter’s American tour later in the month includes the 90-minute digest From Sleep, in conventional concert settings. For the full immersion, if you can’t make Beijing, hit the sack at home some night on your own timetable and start streaming. —M.G.

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