VOM ANFANGEN. Mahler Gets No More Time Than the New Work

On the stage of the Großer Saal, the main hall of the Konzerthaus Berlin, microphones and monitor speakers stand among the music stands, timpani and double basses, beneath chandeliers hung in front of the organ. The opening concert of the VOM ANFANGEN festival set Mahler and new music side by side rather than translating one into the other, and it gave one premiere roughly as much time as the symphony.

The programme was Mahler's Symphony No. 4 and two pieces by Cymin Samawatie: "Vom Anfangen" ("On Beginning"), given its premiere, and "Amphiphilie", written with Ketan Bhatti. The Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Trickster Orchestra and The Present played. The Trickster Orchestra brings instruments and playing techniques that a symphony orchestra makes no provision for. In the new pieces, the ensembles played together.

You can see it in the applause. On the left and in the middle the players wear black. On the right stands a group in colour, and loudspeakers line the front of the stage. Two dress codes on one stage, and neither has adopted the other.

That evening Mahler stood next to a premiere of about the same length. This is where the programme made its real statement, because the new work was not left with the scraps of the evening.

The opening concert of VOM ANFANGEN was at the Konzerthaus Berlin, Großer Saal.