Reviews
Eurofestival 2014 – Review
Stelios Christodoulou
T
HE EXPERIENCE OF the BDZ
eurofestival has merged in
my memory into some dominant
themes that I will explore here.
It was a celebration of
plucked strings and their
German orchestral tradition.
Performances of Wölki and
Ambrosius concertos were
part of a ‘50 years of BDZ’
celebratory concert including
pieces by H.Baumann,
D.Kreidler, S.Behrend’s Vivaldi
concerto arrangement, and
several speeches.
The speeches made me
move to another concert half
way through. While missing
Wölki I was compensated with
O.Kälberer’s Zong which sounded like
prepared piano diffused to a speaker
array, with the composer leading
the ensemble from the bass. Study
of Tremor performed by Japanese
Kataoka ensemble had half the
ensemble tuned to modern pitch and
half to baroque. Tremolos in ‘unison’
had an unsettling effect, along with
dramatic entries of soloists from the
back stage while performing slapping
effects.
Tremolo’s modern potential
re-appeared in Satz by D.Nicolau,
performed by the late composer’s
associates ‘Nov’ mandolin trio’.
Obsession by Nov’s Vincent BeerDemander using tremolo and slides,
gave high modernism a 21st century
humorous twist! They finished
with an impressive Stravinsky
arrangement. Equally impressive was
duo Alon Sariel and Michael Tsalka’s
version of Bartok’s Rumanian dances.
Commissions premiered at the
festival included C.Mandonico’s jazzy
Improviso, A.A.Blattenberg’s Journey
to Greece travelogue mixing popular
dances with church chants and Lars
Wüller’s A Cyborg wakes up, with a
heavily effected electric guitar among
a classical guitar ensemble.
Festival premiere scores were
on sale from the Trekel shop at the
Bürgerzentrum along with lots of
orchestral, chamber and solo pieces.
Edition49, the BDZ magazine and
a few other stall ́