Max Richter's While The Flood Rages is due on 16 October 2026. The ballet behind it premiered in Toronto on 23 November 2022. That nearly four-year gap matters: a forthcoming album and an older stage production can be two editions of the same collaboration, rather than competing accounts of when it began.
Decca's CD listing identifies fifteen tracks in three acts, drawn from Richter and choreographer Wayne McGregor's MaddAddam. The inspiration is Margaret Atwood's trilogy. We have not heard the forthcoming album, so our interest here is how the release fits that earlier work.
Put the dates beside the credits
Studio Wayne McGregor's production archive names Richter for original music and Atwood as creative consultant. It identifies the National Ballet of Canada and the Royal Ballet as co-producers, with the Toronto premiere at the Four Seasons Centre.
| Date | The event |
|---|---|
| 23 November 2022 | Toronto stage premiere |
| 10 October 2026 | Our check of the forthcoming album listing |
| 16 October 2026 | Decca's planned album release |
The first date describes an event that happened. The last describes the current release plan. The album's announcement should not turn the premiere into a new event simply because a recording is arriving now.
Fifteen divided by three is not a track map
Fifteen tracks and three acts might tempt you to make three playlists of five tracks each. The arithmetic works; the claimed artistic boundaries would be invented. Without an identified act map, track count alone cannot tell us where an act ends. The trilogy's three book titles do not establish a one-book-per-act arrangement either.
Our first-listen suggestion is to keep the supplied sequence. Note a timestamp at a transition where you want to stop or replay, and return to it after the complete recording. Ask whether the pause belongs to the music or to your available time. A stage interval, a track boundary and a coffee break have different reasons for existing.
This exercise adds a question the announcement cannot answer for us: what continuity does the music offer without dancers and stage images? It is a proposed listen, not an advance description of the album's sound.
Check the edition you can play
Decca's UK store displayed £12.99 and pre-order status for the CD on 10 October. Delivery and checkout charges are outside that item price. Check the edition and dispatch details before ordering. A streaming listener should instead check service and regional availability at release.
Our Genesis package comparison shows why an edition's contents and playback requirements deserve separate checks. For Richter's release, the dates and credits supply context. The recording must supply the verdict.