Max Richter's concert without (hardly) applause at the Botanical Gardens

When the first notes of the organ and violin of "They Will Shade Us With Their Wings" began to sound this Monday, with the hum of an electronic frequency in the background, it was clear that Max Richter (Hamelín, Germany, 1966) is something of a classical music star. The 2,500 spectators who filled the Alfonso XIII Royal Botanical Garden in Madrid, with tickets sold out since April, waited impatiently and in a respectful silence, unusual at summer festivals, for the appearance of the most acclaimed and sought-after composer this cult genre has produced in recent years.

The expectation that Richter arouses is curious, not unlike that of the rock and pop figures who have appeared at Noches del Botánico this year, such as Van Morrison or Texas. A strange phenomenon that brings together followers from several generations, including entire families, where you can see T-shirts of bands as diverse as Nirvana, The Postal Service, Oasis , Metallica, and more filthy and experimental bands from the American underground like the Enablers. The democratization of classical music. The German composer has reached all of them, despite not having appeared much in the capital in the last ten years.

Specifically, only four times. Some fans joked yesterday that last night's performance wouldn't be like the one in 2017, the most controversial and unusual of his career. On that occasion, as part of Veranos de la Villa, Richter brought together 400 fans with mats and sleeping bags to enjoy "Sleep," a show to listen to lying down and into the early hours of the morning, while he played... for eight hours! This exponent of contemporary and minimalist classical music at its best, in an experience that even included the help of a neuroscientist to study the effect of music on the subconscious and its relationship with sleep. Science, music, marketing?

Richter called it a "lullaby for the modern world" and it also sold out, although not everyone lasted until the end, amidst yawns and snores. Yesterday, luckily, it wasn't about sleeping, but rather about keeping their eyes and ears open for a lineup that included a string quintet, while he conducted from the piano, electronic keyboards, and computer. As he announced at the beginning, the concert was divided into two parts. The first was dedicated to his latest album, 'In A Landscape' (2024), and the second to 'The Blue Notebooks', an album originally released in 2004 and which has been receiving special reissues as it has grown in age.

Among others, the violin and cello of 'And Some Will Fall' played in this first half, with all their dramatic power; the bird recordings of 'A Colour Field (Holocene)', with views of the lush fir forest surrounding the venue, a perfect setting for Richter's music; or the subtle electronic music of 'The Poetry of Earth (Geophony)', which mingled with the incessant noise of the cicadas in the Royal Botanic Gardens, so loud that at times they threatened to boycott the concert. The audience, however, listened intently to the pieces that flowed from one to the next, barely interrupted by applause. Not out of boredom, but out of respect and admiration, as if they were watching one of the films to which the German composer has provided a soundtrack, while the sun set over the horizon.

"This is in my algorithm for background music for work," joked a middle-aged audience member as the violin and piano of 'Love Song (After JE)' began to play, with which Richter closed a first half that was more contemplative, flat, monotonous, and less experimental than the music of his influences. See Brian Eno, Philip Glass, Julia Wolfe, Michael Nyman, and Steve Reich. Fortunately, the performance grew in intensity when the composer began performing 'The Blue Notebooks,' the work he explained he composed "while the invasion of Iraq was being prepared" and in which he included texts by Franz Kafka and the Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz, sung by actress Tilda Swinton, replaced yesterday by singer and DJ Afrodeutsche.

The album's eponymous track was followed by 'On The Nature Of Daylight', a piece he didn't compose for any soundtrack, but which became world-famous after being included in films like 'Shutter Island' (2010) and 'Arrival' (2016), as well as a number of TV series. As the night wore on and the cicadas fell silent, electronic music began to gain ground over Richter's more classical version. The composer's arpeggios played with the melodies of his two violinists, Eloisa-Fleur Thom and Max Baille, in 'Shadow Journal' or that kind of impossible dialogue between Bach and Steve Reich that is 'Iconography'.

In the final stretch, "Vladimir's Blues" and the ritual of "Organum" played before the German musician concluded with "The Trees," a melody full of energy, gradually joined by instruments in a kind of epic finale. It was as if light had finally broken through all the pain that had permeated the stage for an hour and a half.