After 10 years, South Facing switched their speakers back on.
Max Richter came to the historic Crystal Palace Bowl for an Open-Air concert.
The Max Richter Ensemble played their only British show this year, opening with his classic work Infra and featuring his acclaimed new work Voices. The Max Richter Ensemble is a collaboration between Max Richter and Yulia Mahr and conducted by Robert Ziegler, with Grace Davidson soprano, Mari Samuelsen violin and the choir Tenebrae.
Infra is Richter’s musical response to the London 07/07 terror attacks, taking dual inspiration from T.S. Eliot’s modernist poem ‘The Waste Land’.
Voices is a major work created by Richter and his artistic partner Yulia Mahr, featuring text adapted from the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The piece explores themes of global community, born out of Richter’s career-long view of music as activism and his desire to unite audiences worldwide, and the music has been described by Richter himself as “a place to think”. It opens with a 1949 recording of Eleanor Roosevelt reading the Declaration and includes excerpts read by a global community of 70 voices.
South Facing is a new festival reviving the tradition of music at London’s Crystal Palace Bowl, marking its debut year in 2021. The open air concert series featured 12 headline performances from a range of artists and genres, including Corinne Bailey Rae, Dizzee Rascal & The Outlook Orchestra, Supergrass and The Streets, as well as the ENO and Max Richter shows detailed above.
