Are you aware what the Berlin based “Stegreif Orchester” – an improvising symphony orchestra – under the artistic direction of Juri de Marco is doing?
“We do things a bit differently,” the orchestra says ” As such, our concerts feature new elements gained from what we leave out:
Music stands→ Eye contactConductor→ Our own grooveChairs→ ChoreographyUniform→ Authenticity”.
The Stegreif Orchestra is “a collective of 24 genre-bending musicians who value the richness of the classical tradition equally with the limitless possibility of improvisation. We take classical symphonies as our starting point and deconstruct them to make room for a new soundscape. Freed from the confines of written music and a conductor, the ensemble is able to add choreographic elements as it shifts seamlessly between recomposition and improvisation.”
Watch the trailer of their debut program #freebeethoven from 2015 here:
What is striking there for me, is the unique mixture of an authentic and honest musical approach to major repertoire with the absolute liberty of the ensemble to offer their personal view of that music with limitless freedom. When have you last been in a concert when the crowd started cheering and applauding when the main theme of a Beethoven symphony started?
The orchestra’s actual production is based on the Schubert’s C-major symphony – known as “The Great”. Watch a trailer here:
The next opportunity to see #freeschubert will be on November 9, 2017 in Potsdam. Link to buy tickets here.
And for coming year the ensemble is preparing of a new project based on music by Johannes Brahms. The world premiere of #freebrahms is on April 21st, 2018 at the Konzerthaus Berlin. Tickets can be bought here.
