Premiere of the Deutsche Welle documentary series “Orchestra on tour” about the Mahler Chamber Orchestra on euromaxx

During a recent project, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra was accompanied by a team from DEUTSCHE WELLE TV which filmed and produced a documentary about the orchestra and its concert tour to Ferrara, Cologne, Thessaloniki and Athens. The documentary will be broadcast as a 6-part series on the cultural program euromaxx from 24 to 29 November. The program will be shown several times each day in German and English.

The camera team accompanied the orchestra for ten days with the goal of capturing the essence of the orchestra’s unique system on film. An international touring orchestra, the MCO differs significantly from other ensembles in its organizational and structural workings. The filming began at the beginning of October in the orchestra’s office in Berlin, where tour preparations such as a project meeting with the management staff were documented. The documentation continued in Ferrara, where three different concert programs were prepared and performed. After the third concert, the orchestra, along with Principal Conductor Daniel Harding and soloist Christian Tetzlaff, left Ferrara for a tour to Cologne, Thessaloniki and Athens. The program featured Mémoriale for solo flute by Pierre Boulez and the Violin Concerto in D major and Symphony no.2 of Johannes Brahms. The tour provided ample insight into the everyday life of MCO musicians apart from their performances on stage: bus transfers, group flights, hotel check-in, getting oriented in a new city. The day-to-day tasks of the project managers were also caught on tape: planning travel and transport, attending press appointments or arranging meetings with promoters and agents.

To make the glimpses into daily life as concrete as possible, a handful of musicians were selected as main characters. Whether in rehearsal, out for a jog, or at a restaurant – principal flutist Chiara Tonelli, timpanist Martin Piechotta, clarinet player Jaan Bossier, and violinist Michiel Commandeur appear in all 6 episodes and offer the viewer a first-hand impression of the life of an MCO musician. In addition, there are interviews with Daniel Harding, Christian Tetzlaff and MCO General Manager Andreas Richter.

To learn more about the multi-faceted existence of the MCO, or to hear selections from the successful concerts at the Teatro Comunale di Ferrara, the Philharmonie Cologne, the Concert Hall in Thessaloniki or the Megaron in Athens, or to find out how a cello gets from Germany to Greece – tune in to Deutsche Welle during the 48th calendar week of 2008, or visit www.dw-world.de to get more information about local channels, video on demand, or podcasts.

Mahler Chamber Orchestra e.V.
Communications Manager
Andrea Kerner
Hasenheide 54 / D-10967 Berlin
Phone + 49.30.41 71 79-21
Fax +49.30.41 71 79-29
Mobile +49.160.90 96 91 03
a.kerner@mahler-chamber.de
www.mahler-chamber.eu

The Mahler Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1997 on the initiative of Claudio Abbado and a group of musicians from the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra who wished to continue playing together even after reaching the youth orchestra’s age limit. The combined principles of artistic curiosity and the broadest possible spectrum of repertoire, both at the highest possible musical level, guided the ambitious ensemble in its founding and continue to shape its work today. The ensemble’s repertoire reaches from baroque to contemporary and includes everything from chamber music to symphonic programming, from operatic standards to world premieres.

This release was published on openPR.