Aarhus Symfoniorkester / Bell Orchestre

The International Summer Festival Kampnagel has teamed up with Aarhus Festival to commission a collaboration of Canadian instrumental ensemble Bell Orchestre with Aarhus Symphony Orchestra in the big hall of Elbphilharmonie. This encounter promises a sonorous trip into the energetic abysses and meditative heights of orchestral music. Under the baton of André de Ridder (whose stargaze ensemble will join Soap&Skin in another concert at the Elbphilharmonie on August 17), the evening begins with Igor Stravinsky's orchestral color spectacle THE FIREBIRD in the popular version of 1919, originally composed as music for the Ballets Russes, and to this day a powerful orchestral hit. Stravinsky's revolutionary tonal language lets chromatically colored magical beings appear, quotes oriental sounds and folkloristic melodies. And is thus a perfect introduction to the exuberant soundscapes of the Bell Orchestre. The ensemble consists of 6 musical cross-heads, including Arcade Fire members Sarah Neufeld and Richard Reed Parry, and has so far shifted the boundaries of instrumental music on two studio albums. Here such diverse influences as Lee Scratch Parry, Talk Talk or Arvo Pärt come together to a contemporary sound, which sometimes reminds of the continuation of post-rock in orchestral form, and sometimes sounds as if Debussy had composed his fragile impressionism with the knowledge of the ecstatic possibility of a pop concert. And so the rise in a euphoric community that Arcade Fire has brought to stadium perfection is also central to Bell Orchestre. And when the band now joins the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra to perform its new third album »House Music« (which for this occasion will be arranged for orchestra by multi-instrumentalist Owen Pallet), concert hall euphoria is inevitable.

Program

Igor Strawinsky: L'Oiseau de feu (Der Feuervogel / The Firebird) - Suite pour orchestre (1919) 23 min. Break Bell Orchestre: Musik aus dem kommenden Album »House Music«, arranged for orchestra by Owen Pallett (2019) 50 min.