On 12th September 2020, the Dresdner Sinfoniker staged an extraordinary concert on the rooftops of five East German tower blocks in Dresden-Prohlis. Orchestral musicians played from atop some of Dresden’s highest buildings, performing a piece from the Venetian Renaissance, a classic Fanfare, and a contemporary work.

The setting was spectacular- Sixteen alphorns, nine trumpets and four tubas were positioned on the roofs of neighbouring 50-metre-high residential buildings. Four Chinese Dà Gǔ drums and percussion instruments were set up below, on top of a local shopping centre.

The compositions performed at the open-air concert all embraced the concept of musicians communicating over great distances. The show started with film composer John Williams’ 1984 “Olympic Fanfare”. The spirit of the games came to life, welcoming the global diversity of all nations. Venetian composer Giovanni Gabrieli’s subsequent composition composed 400 years earlier was no less impressive. Brass groups sent indulgent chord blocks from high-rise to high-rise, once written for a performance in Venice’s San Marco church. The evening’s highlight was the premiere of Markus Lehmann-Horn’s “Himmel über…” – commissioned especially for the occasion – which showcased the extraordinary sound of the alphorns.

The sky above Prohlis with its tower blocks transformed into an alpine setting- the entire neighbourhood became the show’s audience. Guests on street level, passers-by, an audience sitting on the local shopping centre’s roof terrace and residents on their balconies all listening to the open-air concert. With musicians being hundreds of metres apart and the audience spread across the district, it was an extraordinary setting and a solution to staging large-scale events in the Covid-19 pandemic.

A production of Dresdner Sinfoniker in Cooperation with „So geht sächsisch“ and the Societaetstheater Dresden. Funded by Landeshauptstadt Dresden – Amt für Kultur und Denkmalschutz, Kulturstiftung Dresden der Dresdner Bank, Vonovia SE, District Office Prohlis and Stiftung Kunst und Musik für Dresden. With friendly support of Zuhause in Prohlis, Greve-Studio Berlin, Neumann & Müller Veranstaltungstechnik and Sachsen Fernsehen. The concert is co-financed by taxes based on the budget approved by the members of the Saxon State Parliament.

© Photos: David Sünderhauf, Therese Menzel and Ben Deiß