Weltstadt II
A Berlin film-and-music work in which architecture, city movement, pre-recorded orchestra, spoken text and a live solo part are designed as one piece.
Weltstadt II
The film is not an illustration added after the music. It is part of the composition's architecture.
The introduction
A decidedly less solemn explanation of what follows.
Berlin as musical material
Weltstadt II belongs to a sequence of works in which music is placed in deliberate dialogue with architecture, urban space and moving image. Weltstadt I was made in Cambridge as a dance work. Weltstadt II turns to Berlin and treats the city not as background scenery but as part of the timing, scale and atmosphere of the piece.
I have always liked telling stories with music. Film adds another route into the imagination, but the intention is not to make a music video. The images and the score are intended to carry different information at the same time, sometimes reinforcing one another and sometimes pulling apart.
The solo part is designed to be performed live against the film and the pre-recorded orchestral material — closer in spirit to a studio player joining an already-built world than to a conventional concerto soloist standing in front of an orchestra.
Olomouc · Brno · Berlin
The string material was recorded with the Moravian Philharmonic in Olomouc and the wind parts in Brno. The separate recording sessions were assembled into the orchestral layer used with the film.
In the middle section, actor Luca Schaub of the Berliner Ensemble recites Goethe. The spoken word is not a detached narration: it enters the same audiovisual space as the architecture, city images and orchestral writing.
The first performance took place at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on 23 November 2015 with Brendan Ball as soloist.