Classical music meets video art

Micro concerts - an initiative of Kent Nagano in cooperation with the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg and Staatsoper Hamburg. Tony Cooper reports

A series of micro concerts by the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg, conducted by Kent Nagano, explored new ways and methods of listening to music at the time of the world pandemic through video technology. Therefore, in cooperation with a team of international video artists, a cycle of five audio-visual concerts responded to the times of the crisis. Originally streamed by Radio France, the videos have now become available for on-line viewing on the channels of the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg and Staatsoper Hamburg.

Classical concert music and video art usually have few points of contact as visual broadcasts of orchestral concerts usually opt for a documentary format, the camera following the flow of the music showing performers, instruments and so forth in stark contrast to video technology in pop music which has enjoyed decades of evolution producing its own aesthetic forms. Therefore, in five compact micro concerts, each one lasting about 30 minutes, Kent Nagano, in association with Georges Delnon and the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg, have fused classical music and contemporary video art corresponding to the phases of the world pandemic over the past couple of years.

A formidable team of international video artists, chosen by Georges Delnon (artistic director of the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg and Staatsoper Hamburg) undertook the detailed task of visualising the programmes. The artists comprised Luis August Krawen, Jonas Englert, Zbig Rybczyński & Dorota Zglobicka, Kamila B. Richter & Michael Bielicky and Virgil Widrich. ‘We didn’t want to produce the nth streamed concerts,’ said Kent Nagano, ‘but offer viewers new images, leaving space for associative imagination’ while Georges Delnon, describing the project’s visual concept, had this to say: ‘Elements include avatars such as an animated Kent Nagano, distorted footage of the orchestra, webcam recordings and ‘‘found footage’’ thereby lending some of the music a completely new horizon for listeners and viewers alike.’

For Kent Nagano, the project was (and remains) close to his heart and it offered a chance to emphasise how important, relevant and necessary music can be in times of crisis: ‘The micro concerts are a kind of musical UFO,’ explained Maestro Nagano, ‘not resembling any known project. Each concert transports a message and tells a story showing how deeply music is rooted in society today, a special project, modern in structure and form, that could only have happened during the pandemic. In fact, the visualisation makes each micro concert a real creation.’

Overall, there was a total of 25 works recorded including music by Widmann, Schumann, Beethoven, Bach, Villa-Lobos, Dutilleux and Xenakis. Kent Nagano and the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg were joined by such international performers as Klaus Florian Vogt who sang Mahler’s ‘Von der Jugend’ while Katharina Konradi, Jana Kurucová and Georg Nigl interpreted Ligeti’s avant-garde work ‘Nouvelles aventures’. Members of Staatsoper Hamburg comprised Hellen Kwon, Gabriele Rossmanith, Kristina Stanek, Kady Evanyshyn and Bernhard Hansky sang works by Bartók and Schoenberg while invited ensembles - Harvestehuder Kammerchor Hamburg and Rundfunkchor Berlin - were heard in pieces by Brahms and Schoenberg.

The micro concerts are available on-line (on demand) to 22 October 2022 via the orchestra's website, their YouTube channel, and the France Musique website.

A magnificent architectural statement. But what is it like going to a concert at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg?

 Kristjan Järvi & Baltic Sea Philharmonic at the Elbphilharmonic (Photo (c) BMEF / Peter Adamik)

What is your favourite concert hall? What are the key ingredients to your concert going? A visit this Summer to the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg to hear Kristjan Järvi the Baltic Sea Philharmonic [see my review] set me thinking.

The Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg (Photo © Iwan Baan)

The Elbphilharmonie offers a concert-going experience like no other. Designed by the Swiss architecture firm of Herzog and de Meuron (which was responsible for Tate Modern in London), the Elbphilharmonie project was famously overrunning and costly. Work began in 2007, and was scheduled to be finished by 2010 with an estimated cost of €241 million; construction work officially ended in 2016 at a cost of €789 million. This was partly because of the technical complexity and architectural daring; putting a huge glass box on top of a huge existing brick warehouse, and suspending a concert-hall inside (in fact there are three concert halls, an hotel as well as apartments and, of course, a car park).

The result has great architectural élan, but what I want to consider is, 'Does the concert-going experience work?'.

In rehearsal: Kristjan Jarvi & the Baltic Sea Philharmonic at the Elbphilharmonie

In rehearsal: Kristjan Järvi & Baltic Sea Philharmonic at the Elbphilharmonic (Photo (c) BMEF / Peter Adamik)

Kristjan Järvi and the Baltic Sea Philharmonic concluded their recent Summer tour with a presentation of their Waterworks programme at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg on 29 August 2017, with soloist Mikhail Simonyan (see my review). Having arranged to cover the concert and hear the Elbphilharmonie in action, I was invited to attend the orchestra's rehearsal on the afternoon of the concert.

Lightdesigner Bertil Mark setting up lights for the final Waterworks concert –
combining music, light, projections, sounds and fashion
(Photo (c) BMEF / Peter Adamik)

#From the outside, the Elbphilharmonie is somewhat forbidding,  huge brick warehouse topped by an equally huge glass structure. The public pays to go up to piazza level (the top of the brick structure) to see the view. I have to negotiate the stage door; this involves a lift to the 10th floor (which I shared with a dozen or so of the performers), a welter of waiting for lifts, clean white modern back-stage areas, and an unplanned encounter with Maestro Kristjan Järvi (we first met in 2016 when I interview him).  Then suddenly we are in the main concert hall, an astonishing space with off-white textured walls  and balconies snaking round all sides. A very striking space, it has real presence.

The Baltic Sea Philharmonic is a young ensemble, with young people from all ten Baltic states, and this is their first encounter with the hall. But this is not just a music call and sound check, the concert involves elaborate presentation and light show, so lights are flashing all around as well. I am amazed at how focussed the performers are, with technicians wandering round and a photographer, not to mention assembling the light show, with the video projections forming distinctive patterns on the acoustic texturing of the walls.

Full concentration: Baltic Sea Philharmonic
in rehearsal at Elbphilharmonic
(Photo (c) BMEF / Peter Adamik)

The programme is challenging enough, arrangements of Handel, alongside music by Charles Coleman, Gene Pritsker and Philip Glass, including the Violin Concerto No. 2 (with Mikhail Simonyan) and the large-scale suite Aguas da Amazonia. The orchestra has been on tour for ten days, taking their Baltic Folk programme (which includes Stravinsky's Firebird played from memory) to Germany, Sweden and Italy, and then doing this Waterworks programme in Germany and at the Usedom Music Festival, finishing here at the Elbphilharmonie.

When the orchestra finally starts, the sound in the hall is strikingly clear. There are a lot of musicians on stage, including much percussion and a drum kit, but you can hear with clarity and some warmth. The orchestra's familiar vibrant tone really does come over. But the hall gives nowhere to hide either, it is not an acoustic which bathes the performers in an all encompassing glow, which certainly puts the young players on their mettle.

Coming from so many different countries, and with a chief conductor who was born in Estonia but raised in the USA, the orchestra's rehearsal language is English. Kristjan is a very physical conductor, his style involves not just indicating but graphically demonstrating, and the players clearly respond, which makes for pretty vivid listening and looking. But is is also clear that he has a precise idea of what he seeks to achieve. And this rehearsal involves putting the most challenging passages through the crucible of the hall's acoustic.

I leave, impressed with what is being achieved and curious about the final concert.

Test patterns prior to the ‚Waterworks‘ concert show that will transform the building into an aquarium of the senses
(Photo (c) BMEF / Peter Adamik)

Glass & more: Baltic Sea Philharmonic's Waterworks at the Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg

 Kristjan Järvi & Baltic Sea Philharmonic at the Elbphilharmonic (Photo (c) BMEF / Peter Adamik)

Waterworks, Philip Glass, Charles Coleman, Gene Pritsker, Handel; Mikhail Simonyan, Baltic Sea Philharmonic, Kristjan Järvi; Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Aug 29 2017
Star rating: 5.0
Kristjan Järvi and his young players fill the Elbphilharmonie with vibrant music-making

Mikhail Simonyan, Kristjan Järvi & Baltic Sea Philharmonic
(Photo (c) BMEF / Peter Adamik)

The final stop of the Baltic Sea Philharmonic's Summer tour saw the orchestra, under its founder and artistic director Kristjan Järvi, making its debut at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. (See my interview with Kristjan Järvi where we talk about the programme) The programme, Waterworks, combined music with an immersive visual setting produced by Bertil Mark, Lars Falkner and Philipp Geist of Kristjan Järvi's Sunbeam Productions, and with costumes for the orchestra courtesy of the label house Monton. The music combined Charles Coleman's orchestration of Philip Glass's suite Aguas da Amazonia and Glass's Violin Concerto No. 2 'The American Four Seasons', with the young Russian violinist Mikhail Simonyan, and the evening started with a pot-pourri of water-themed works, excerpts from Handel's Water Music alongside Charles Coleman's Drenched and Gene Pritsker's Water Possessed Afresh, The orchestra, made up of young musicians from the ten Baltic states, was joined by three members of the New York-based Absolute Ensemble, Mat Fieldes (electric bass), Charlie Porter (trumpet) and David Rozenblatt (percussion).

We entered the hall with the striking visuals playing on ceiling and walls, and sounds of water around us. The visual side, whilst very striking, was not perhaps sufficiently immersive and I understand at other venues on the tour the designers had been able to create a more total environment. But then, the Grosser Saal of the Elphilharmonie is a striking experience in its own right.

Baltic Sea Philharmonic at the Elbphilharmonic
(Photo (c) BMEF / Peter Adamik)

Water percussion effects led us into the orchestral music, starting with a rock/baroque mash-up in which fragments of the storm from Vivaldi's The Four Seasons wandered in and out of focus. This first suite moved from rock/baroque, through Handel played reasonably straight with creditable style, to orchestral baroque through Grieg (I think) to conclude with a another highly rhythmic orchestral rock number. It worked, thanks to the orchestra's sheer enthusiasm and vitality, and the attention to detail. Kristjan Järvi might be a natural showman, but he ensured that his young players gave impressively on the pulse performances.

Philip Glass's Violin Concerto No. 2 'The American Four Seasons' was written in 2009 as a response to Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, but Glass's reaction to the Vivaldi is guarded and he does not reveal which movement is which. Add to this, that each of the four movements is preceded by a solo violin movement (prologue and three songs) and the result is striking in its own right. Written for strings and keyboard, this was the most intimate music of the evening. The Philip Glass on display was a long way form the Glass of Einstein on the Beach, and the music was notable for the way Glass kept control of the textures with great fluidity, rather than laying down a rhythmic pattern and letting it flow. There was little peaceful noodling here.

A striking new concert hall - Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie opens in 2017

Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg - Photo Maxim Schulz

Hamburg's striking new Elbphilharmonie concert hall opens in January 2017 and so the 2016-17 Hamburg orchestral season recently announced includes not only the regular concerts in the historic Laeiszhalle but the opening festival for the Elbphilharmonie and a series of concerts there in 2017. The NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and Ensemble Resonanz are the resident orchestra and ensemble at the Elbphilharmonie whilst the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra is resident at the Laeiszhalle. (You can read about my 2013 visit to the unfinished Elbphilharmonie in my article on this blog). Both orchestras along with the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra will be performing during the concert hall's opening festival.

Elbphilharmonie aims to be a 'Concert Hall for Everyone', the publicly accessible Plaza opens on 4 November 2016 and the Elbphilharmonie’s concert programme is intended to appeal to all with its carefully structured design, quality and accessibility. The building itself promises to be highly striking, but the opening festival includes all the local orchestras and many visitors in a highly enticing series of concerts. In many ways they need to be, the hall was supposed to open in 2010 and since then costs have rocketed (the final budget being around ten times the original planned).

Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg - Photo Maxim Schulz

For the opening of the Elbphilharmonie on 11 & 12 January 2017 Thomas Hengelbrock conducts the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra with soloists including Jonas Kauffmann and Bryn Terfel. Then on 13 January, Kent Nagano conducts the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra and choir of Hamburg State Opera in the premiere of Jorg Widmann's Oratorium. Also in the opening festival, Jeffrey Tate conducts the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with soloists Camilla Nylund, Sarah Connolly, Klaus Florian Vogt and Luc Pisaroni, and Ingo Metzmacher conducts the Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in Schoenberg's Moses und Aaron with soloists Franz Grundheber and John Daszak.

Visitors to the opening festival include Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra, Ingo Metzmacher and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Arditti Quartet, Mitsuko Uchida, and Iveta Apkalna will put the hall's new organ through its paces.

Further ahead, highlights include the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra's Into Iceland festival, the Salaam Syria Festival,  Diego Fasoli's conducts Rossini's La Cenerentola with Cecilia Bartoli, Frederic Wake-Walker and Mahogany Opera Group will be taking Rolf Hind's Lost in Thought, Ian Bostridge and the Britten Sinfonia perform Britten's Curlew River,

Full information and tickets from the Elbphilharmonie website and the on-line concert year-book is on Issuu

Planet Hugill in Hamburg: More Reeperbahn Festival

My article on the Reeperbahn Festival has been published on TheCultureTrip.Com website, so if you want to read more background on the Reeperbahn Festival and learn about what bands we saw whilst we were there, then visit TheCultureTrip.Com  (links corrected)

Planet Hugill in Hamburg: Elbphilharmonie

The Elbphilharmonie rises above the river Elbe in Hamburg, (c) Thies Rätzke

Up until the war, Hamburg had two concert halls with the Laeiszhalle as the more recent one, built in the early 20th century. The Laeiszhalle is where the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra has its orchestral concerts. The idea to replace the other hall, destroyed during the war, is a relatively recent idea. The ElbPhilharmonie will, when finished, house a large concert hall and two smaller ones, plus a hotel and apartments, in a spectacular building on the edge of the river Elbe. Designed by Heurzog and de Meuron, it is certain to become a destination venue, it is also set to cost a record amount. The project has become somewhat notorious, both for the cost and for the fact that it has been under construction since 2007. On Friday 27 September 2013 I was given a guided tour of the unfinished but still striking building.

The original idea was to transform an old 1960's warehouse into a media centre, but the ending of dotcom boom put paid to that. Instead a private initiative put forward the idea of a concert hall in its place, in a building designed by the Swiss architects Heurzog and de Meuron (best known in the UK for Tate Modern). In a move which would prove to be costly the new building was to be placed over the top of the warehouse. The resulting building is, even now, spectacular despite being unfinished. At its tallest the building is 26 stories, which is very noticeable in a city like Hamburg where high rise building is non-existent.

Planet Hugill in Hamburg: Philharmonic Chamber Concert

On Sunday morning, 29 September, we attended the first chamber concert of the Hamburg Philharmonic's season. The concert took place in the Kleiner Saal (small hall) of the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg at 11.00am. A programme of Britten, Richard Strauss and Johannes Brahms was played by Hibiki Oshima and Mette Tjaerby Korneliusen (violins), Thomas Ruhl (viola), Birgitta Maass (cello) and Eberhard Hasenfratz (piano), with the string players all being member of the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra. The Philharmonic is over 180 years old and since the 1940's has provided the orchestra for the Staatsoper Hamburg as well.

The Laeiszhalle was built in the early 20th century, in neo-baroque style, and remarkably survived the devastations of World War Two. But the small hall was redeveloped in the 1950's and is now a modernist interior full of wood which gives a very warm sound. The hall is not raked and sight-lines to the stage are not ideal.

Planet Hugill in Hamburg: Benjamin Clementine and Douglas Dare

Douglas Dare, photo credit: ninazimmermann.com

On Saturday night (29 September 2013) I caught two singer/song-writers, Benjamin Clementine and Douglas Dare,  doing acoustic sets at the Schulmuseum as part of the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg. The venue is a 19th century school converted into a museum of school life, The concerts took place in the former school hall, a lovely double height room with floor to ceiling windows. The events were popular, there was a huge queue for Benjamin Clementine's recital, and for both the hall was full to bursting, with everybody sitting on cushions on the floor. Audiences for both artists were very mixed with a good range of ages.

Planet Hugill in Hamburg: Sven Helbig and the Faure Quartett

Svein Helbig

Sven Helbig and the Faure Quartett (Dirk Mommertz - piano, Erika Geldsetzer - violin, Sascha Frömbling - viola and Konstantin Heidrich  - cello) appeared at Fliegende Bauten as part of the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg on Friday 27 September to play Helbig's Pocket Symphonies.

The venue of Helbig and the Faure Quartett's concert as a huge circus tent which normally houses cabaret and other entertainment. Sitting at cabaret-style tables, the audience was large and enthusiastic, though the venue wasn't full and people came and went freely. Dramatically lit and dressed in black, the quartet were joined on-stage by Helbig who controlled lighting and sound via a series of consoles, mixing in synthesized sound and even contributing the occasional note on a glockenspiel.

Helbig's Pocket Symphonies are a group of 12 short works written specially for the Faure Quartett and scored for quartet plus orchestra. I have reviewed their Cd of the works, where they were joined by the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra and conductor Kirstjan Jarvi. For their performance at the Reeperbahn Festival, Helbig introduced the synthesised elements instead of the orchestra, a portable solution for live performance which is a relatively new development I understand.

Planet Hugill in Hamburg for the Reeperbahn Festival

N-Joy Reeper Bus in Spielbude Platz, Hamburg 

I am currently in Hamburg for a few days covering the Reeperbahn Festival and other events (see my review of La Traviata from Staatsoper Hamburg). The Reeperbahn Festival is a remarkable musical manifestation, a three day jamboree full of the most amazing bands from across the popular music spectrum with a highly catholic taste in genre and style. As well as indie-pop, electro-folk, techno and a variety of others, there is a classical/jazz stream. I have been attending a wide variety of concerts and will be covering the classical/jazz ones, including Svein Helbig and the Faure Quartett in further postings.

The Reeperbahn is a street in Hamburg which historically led from the city towards the Danish border and was thus outside the city limits, and by the docks. The name in fact means rope walk, and the area became notorious as a red light district. But it has also been a home to music venues including the clubs which hosted the Beatles when they played here in the 1960's before they became famous. For three days in September the area is taken over, as over 60 venues present a diverse range of bands. The venues themselves are very varied ranging from small clubs and bars to huge clubs, and even taking in a church and open air venues. The programmers have no preconception about style, genre or nationality. Instead they focus on quality, so part of the charm of the festival is serendipity, wandering into a small bar and seeing a band playing to a packed room knowing that next year you may see them playing to far bigger venues.

La Traviata at the Staatsoper Hamburg

Johannes Erath's production of Verdi's La Traviata opened at the Staatsoper Hamburg in February this year, with Ailyn Perez in the title role. Perez returned with Stephen Costello as Alfredo for three performances in September 2013 and I caught the third on 27 September 2013, with Alexandru Agache as Giorgio Germont and Rebecca Jo Loeb as Flora. The production was designed by Annette Kurz with costumes by Herbert Murauer. The conductor was Alexander Joel.

As we entered the auditorium the curtain was up and we saw a lone figure sitting on a huge bare stage, black walls, lighting rig visible. The figure started playing the accordion, two figures came on stage, Alfredo (Costello) and Annina (Ida Aldrian), she gave money to the accordionist (Jakob Neubauer) whilst Costello pulled the body of Violetta out of the ground and cradled it.  At the conclusion of the prelude, the rear wall opened and the party guests were revealed, coming forward on a platform whilst Costello was still on stage. This was clearly a production which was understood to be happening in flashback.