Max Richter: the composer who crosses the invisible divide between ‘high’ and ‘low’ music

2026-02-06 - 20:45

His first Oscar nomination, for Hamnet, is testament to the German-born British composer’s chameleon-like adaptability The German-born British composer Max Richter had never been nominated for an Oscar until this year, though he may – unintentionally – have once scuppered someone else’s chance of winning one. In 2016, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences disqualified Jóhann Jóhannsson’s score for the film Arrival on the grounds that viewers would find it impossible to distinguish the late Icelandic composer’s soundtrack from the bought-in piece of music that book-ended Denis Villeneuve’s alien invasion psychodrama: Richter’s soaring, maximalist-minimalist On the Nature of Daylight. Continue reading...