Welcome to Benjamin Schmid's Bach Lounge! He is not the first to improvise on Bach, but too few violinists have tried it! Yet it is so obvious: Bach as the inventor of the "walking bass", as a master of improvisation. Schmid followed the temptation and inspiration was everywhere ...
This programme is a continuation of his Bach:Reflected programme, which is also available on CD: There will be swinging fever dreams about preludes, arrangements of Loure, Gavotte and Co. - while strictly adhering to Bach's harmonic sequences, but also improvising on their set pieces; sometimes only Bach's original solo part over an orchestral ostinato will be replaced by free improvisation; there will be an exploration of polytonal extensions of Bach's harmonies, excursions to Bach's neighbours such as Biber, Vivaldi and Marcello or even references to "real" jazz by Duke Ellington, Jerome Kern, Friedrich Gulda or Chick Corea. All of this will be made possible by Schmid's fantastic colleagues in arrangement and improvisation: Jarkko Riihimäki on piano and Christian Wendt on bass.
Bach as an inspiration for freedom in music - because an improvised note always has a different aura than a perfectly played notated one. Dare to take a new, relaxed, "casual" look at Bach with Benjamin Schmid's jazz trio!
Church.Sound.Space
Together with the 2024 European Capital of Culture Bad Ischl Salzkammergut, the new programming format Kirch.Klang.Raum opens itself up to free spaces of improvisation: new perspectives on sound will be opened in Ausseerland with the star violinist Benjamin Schmid and his reflections about Johann Sebastian Bach. The season will also come to a close there with an open improvisation workshop and a concert.
In Bad Ischl, the newly restored Bruckner organ in the parish church will become the center and highlight of the programming: not only the Bruckner anniversary will be celebrated in an unusual harmony on this impressive instrument; the call for the first Orgel bewegt! (Organ Moves!) will also be given. Over the course of a three-day furious finale to an international competition, renowned jury members (Jeremy Joseph and Thierry Escaich) will improvise with old silent film classics just like the young finalists.
www.kirchklang.at
Wolfgang Bankl, Eivind Berg, Thierry Escaich, Jeremy Joseph, Paul-Boris Kertsman, Benjamin Schmid Jazz Trio, Jarkko Riihimäki, Vienna Academy Brass, Orchester Wiener Akademie, ORGANic WOODWINDs, Christian Wendt, finalists of the international improvisation competition "Orgel bewegt!", Johannes Ebenbauer, Susanne Ebenbauer, Georg Gratzer (artists)
Martin Haselböck (concept, project manager)
A cooperation of European Capital of Culture Bad Ischl Salzkammergut 2024 and KIRCH'KLANG Festival and Brucknerhaus Linz.
Christian Haselmayr (Head of Programme Music, Youth, Community Building)