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.
A decade later, Richter is up for this year’s best original score for his work on the Shakespeare drama Hamnet. If he wins, it would be the crowning glory of an already superlative 12 months for the musician, who turns 60 a week after the Oscars ceremony in LA.
Last year, his 2015 album Sleep surpassed 2bn streams across all platforms, becoming the first classical record to do so. Awarded a CBE in the new year honours list, his work will be celebrated with the Berlinale Camera award at the Berlin film festival, which starts next week, and from Monday a Richter-scored ballet inspired by the works of Virginia Woolf will be livestreamed in UK cinemas.
