On Saturday the 15th September I played as one of three acts at the Nachtklang event at the Musikfest Erzgebirge. The event invites crossover acts between baroque music and music from other cultures. I spent rather a large proportion of the summer arranging 30 minutes of music from styles including baroque, tango, japanese koto and heavy metal. It was a pleasure to finally perform the result of this work. The event happened in a rather flashy factory for Mühle shaving equipment. The other acts were a trio with two keyed-violins and guitar playing Bach arrangements, together with a jazz quintet using Bach cantata arias as a basis for their compositions. I found both of these acts were incredibly refreshing and tastefully done.
One gimmick to the evening was that the public got to vote on who they though most deserved to win a recording with Deutschlandfunk Kultur radio. And, well, they chose me which is very flattering but I think it could have easily also gone to one of the other acts, which were all so different from each other.
The concert will be broadcast on Deutschlandfunk Kultur Radio this Friday, 21st September at 20:03pm central european time, and is accessible via the following link:
Robert Smith Viola da Gamba & Baroque Cello 