Distinct Dissonance And Piano Tones Mark Max Richter’s Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

By NPR News January 25, 2021

The Tiny Desk is working from home for the foreseeable future. Introducing NPR Music’s Tiny Desk (home) concerts, bringing you performances from across the country and the world. It’s the same spirit — stripped-down sets, an intimate setting — just a different space.

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BY TOM HUIZENGA

There’s a distinct dissonance between the bucolic setting of this lovely Max Richter Tiny Desk (home) concert and the reality he references after his performance.

“Looking forward to the time when gigs can come back and we can do this for real,” the composer says, leaving us with a yearning that is borne out in his tranquil, probing music.

These half-dozen short pieces can offer two very different modes of experience. Shot in artful black and white, their simplicity and beauty invite us into a world as we once knew it, where fresh air wafts through open doors and dogs peacefully snooze (canine cameos by Evie and Haku) in the late summer sunshine in southern England.

On the other hand, the chaos found in the real world we know today can find a balm in Richter’s soothing, oscillating figures in “Infra 3” or the gently swaying chords of “Origins,” where the music lumbers in the lower half of the keyboard.

There’s a mysterious potency in instrumental music, where the mind is open to wander and free-associate. Max Richter taps into that power with singular grace and humanity.