Richter and his musicians are performing for three nights as part of the Berliner Festspiele’s Maerz Musik Festival.
In September 2015, Richter performed Sleep to an invited audience of just 20 at the Wellcome Collection, London. Radio 3 broadcast the piece, thereby earning the world record for the longest piece of music ever broadcast live.
Richter composed his piece, which features piano, strings and vocals fused with electronics, in consultation with US neurologist David Eagleman as a way to explore the effect music has on subconscious minds.
Hannah Ellis-Petersen was at the London performance. “As silence cloaked the room and the soft piano chords began, followed by the deep melancholic vibrations of the cello, I was engulfed by a sense of calm,” she wrote.
Richter describes his piece as “an eight-hour place to rest in a frenetic world”.
