Modern Classic is World Music

Yesterday I have been to another concert in the Kulturpalast Dresden. This time it was the WDR Symphony Orchestra playing.

The first half of the concert was very modern and visionary (this year’s motto of the festival). The first short piece had it’s European premiere. It was called „Field Guide“ by Gabriella Smith. Its idea was to take the noises of insects and transform them into music. The piece wants to point out that over the last 30 years we have lost three quarters of the biomass of insects, which is devastating! I loved the piece, even if it has used the instruments in unconventional ways. It is from 2017.

The next piece was a cello concert that was not only performed by Jan Vogler but also commissioned by him. It was very special, because the three movements were composed by three different composers. One from the US, one from Germany and one from China. They didn’t know what the music would sound like the others wrote. That was an interesting experiment which turned out nicely. I was especially excited about the second movement! Would love to hear the piece again!

The last part of the concert after the interval was Beethoven‘s third symphony, called Eroica. At the time of its writing (1802/1803) this symphony was also visionary, as it was written under the signs of the French Revolution.

Again another great concert evening!