Max Richter Essentials

With admiration for American minimalism (particularly Philip Glass) as well as for a range of European pop (including The Beatles and Kraftwerk), this graduate of London's Royal Academy of Music has cut a unique path. He produces albums, collaborates with the likes of Tilda Swinton and occasionally “recomposes” works that other artists would assume are fully fixed in listeners' minds. (It takes ambition to propose a new version of Vivaldi's Four Seasons.) Whether composing music for sleep or for more lively pursuits, he's a gently provocative force in contemporary music.