The Dresdner Sinfoniker event on 12th September 2020 turned out to be a unique spectacle. A cast was spelled over seventies tower blocks in a post-modern district of Dresden and people gathered in the open, on balconies and behind open windows to listen to the concert “Himmel über Prohlis”. Performances on high-rise buildings are unheard of, especially in the midst of socialist architecture. And yet, music was simultaneously played on four seventeen-floor buildings, a long East German block of flats and on the roof of a shopping centre. No concert hall can offer such an extraordinary experience with the audience as an integral part of the event.

The spectacular afternoon opened with a sweeping performance of John Williams’ “Olympic Fanfare”, composed nearly four decades ago to rouse the masses. Predictably, the music’s appeal has not faded over the years. Wieland Reißmann’s arrangement for 16 French horns, 9 trumpets, 4 tubas and a quartet of Dà Gu drums heightened Williams incidental music which arose in bright colours above the audience.

The following three compositions by Giovanni Gabrieli were just as impressive. Reißmann arranged the early Baroque music with such finesse that an audible bridge was forged from Venice to Dresden, the home of Gabrieli’s student Heinrich Schütz. The gripping performance seemed to transform socialist architecture into alpine landscapes. Before the interval, the quartet of Dà Gu drums provided a Chinese intermezzo, introducing powerfully whirling percussion music by Minxiong Li.

The highlight of the concert was the world premiere of Markus Lehmann-Horn’s “Himmer über…”, commissioned by the Dresdner Sinfoniker. The orchestration of this opulent work is similar to William’s Fanfare, with one crucial difference. Instead of French horns, the composer from Munich uses 16 alphorns. From the top of the tower blocks, their sonorous sound pervaded the late summer afternoon, perfectly synchronising with bright trumpets, mellow tubas and rhythmic drumming. For half an hour, the sky above Prohlis was filled with mountainous murmur, rising and falling cascades of sound and a poignant intimacy, echoing in an inconceivable vastness. Lehmann-Horn’s composition embraces the specific acoustic setup, creating a musical narrative of German and European history which brings us into the 21st century.

Text: Michael Ernst

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.

Download photos & press release here.