Concert hall digitally expanded
At its season opener, the Basel Sinfonietta is both "grounded" and "app-supported". For once, using a cell phone during the concert was considered cool.
With two striking orchestral works from the 1980s and a premiere by a Swiss composer, the Basel Sinfonietta under its Principal Conductor Baldur Brönnimann ambitious into the new season. To the upbeat internet presence of the orchestra the "world premiere" of the App Onstage. The concert was captured by four stage cameras and transmitted to cell phones via an app. Many audience members tested the various functions. One successful idea was to display the scores of the works performed - although you would have needed at least one tablet to decipher the small print. The attraction quickly wore off, especially as there was enough to hear and see in real life. As the concert progressed, more and more phones disappeared and the program booklets were opened.
In any case, the main event of the evening was the highly ambitious program with the moderately original title "Earth" Crumb dances with Beat. The work of the British artist George Crumb, A Haunted Landscape (1985), and Earth Dances by Harrison Birtwistle, composed in 1985/86, formed the framework for the Swiss premiere of Beat Furrer's piece Nero su Nero The two Anglo-Saxons realize the theme in a pictorial, colorful, even romantic way, while Furrer's music manages without any colored pencils at all.
From Crumb ...
Crumb's mostly calm but imaginative music relies on numerous, sometimes exotic percussion instruments. Together with the fearsome wind instruments, they create a spooky atmosphere. The strings are used relatively little. Where they do, they exude calm and transfiguration. In the work commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, performed at the time under the direction of Zubin Metha, among others, Crumb wanted to set the mysteriousness of familiar landscapes to music.
... to Furrer,
Beat Furrer's Nero su NeroThe piece, premiered in June 2018 by the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under Cornelius Meister, is dominated by gloom. The program text speaks of "gradations of darkness". The conductor began by pointing out the three-part structure of the work, in which winds and strings play with and against each other in two layers. The winds repeatedly push themselves glaringly and crosswise between the strings. The middle section, peppered with microtones and glissandi, brings temporary calm, which is soon recharged with energy and once again leads to conflict.
... to Birtwistle ...
Earth Dances is considered one of the contemporary masterpieces for orchestra that is as rich as it is difficult to perform. Birtwistle wrote this 40-minute piece for the BBC Symphony Orchestra and dedicated it to Pierre Boulez, who first performed it with the Ensemble Modern Orchestra in Frankfurt in 2001. The listener is taken on a mysterious journey through a tangled musical landscape with sudden, overwhelming climaxes. The composer has created six instrumental layers, each with different functions, which interlock or connect, collide or break apart. With this powerful musical material, he wanted to recreate the movements of tectonic plates with their eruptions and convulsions.
The score is characterized by a complex rhythm which later intensifies into a throbbing, continuous and almost jazzy pulse. The rapid solo by the viola section deserves praise. Occasionally, rhythmic patterns emerge only to disappear again shortly afterwards. Melodic islands in various instrumental groups briefly spread a sense of well-being and then disappear again.
The Sinfonietta played under high tension. It was obvious that the performers were still struggling with the pitfalls of the score. Not all the pizzicati arrived on time. Baldur Brönnimann proved to be a safe organizer who always remained prudent, reliable and consistent in his precise markings, a certainty that helped the orchestra to get by. Despite everything, the musicians are to be congratulated for having the courage to perform this monumental and demanding work.
... and back to the app
Felix Heri, Managing Director of the Basel Sinfonietta, explained to the Swiss Music Newspaper the use of the app: "It is crucial for us to think about how we communicate our work to the audience. The question of the concert experience in the 21st century is a top priority.
This app offers us the opportunity to digitally expand the concert space and gain new experiences in this regard. Over 200 people actively used the app during the concert and many gave feedback, which we are currently evaluating. The individual verbal feedback after the concert was mixed. It ranged from 'a real benefit' to 'cell phones don't belong in the concert'. The topic was also discussed controversially in the orchestra and there were certain reservations. However, the orchestra board did not hesitate to implement this project. The audience and the orchestra got involved and we were able to encourage discussion and try out new approaches. The app will be used again on October 21 at our 2nd subscription concert, for example to observe the soloist's performance more closely in Michel Roth's new percussion work for Christian Dierstein. No further assignments are currently planned. But we will certainly continue to experiment."
