I am very happy about this concert review by Peter Zimmer, published in the Thüringer Allgemeine on 10/17, 2024. Here is the translation from German…
Listeners were treated to a completely new musical experience at this concert in the Kyffhäuserkreis district. American-born musician experiments with electronic instruments. How this interacts with the powerful sound of the organ.
Unfamiliar sounds with unfamiliar “instruments” could be heard in the lower church in Bad Frankenhausen. For the first time, music lovers in the Kyffhäuserkreis were confronted with the announcement “Theremin and organ”. The concert was organized by Andrew Levine and Michael von Hintzenstern.
Andrew Levine, born in New York City in 1968, received his first violin lessons at the age of six. After living in Berlin for several years, he now lives in Hamburg.
New Yorker likes to improvise with electronic sounds to the organ
Andrew has been playing the theremin since 2010, mostly in the context of free improvising configurations. Since 2021, he has been exploring the interplay of organ with theremin, modular synthesizer and continuum as part of a scholarship.
Michael von Hintzenstern (born 1956) studied organ and choir conducting, founded the “Ensemble for Intuitive Music Weimar” in 1980 and has been organist at the “Liszt Organ” in Denstedt near Weimar since 1986. In 1988, he initiated the first New Music Days in Weimar, which have been held annually ever since.
Listeners were able to look over the shoulders of musicians in the gallery
On the evening of the concert, just over 120 “curious listeners” attended this theremin event. Cantor Schildmann had already offered beforehand that people could go to the upper gallery to watch the two artists – especially the theremin player – directly at their “work”; this was widely used.
The “experimental” program consisted of 5 parts. It began with the oldest instrument under the title “Weaving cantilenas”. A cantilena is a guided, lyrical melody with mostly slow, sustained passages, whereby the course of the melody is often dictated by the teremin. Visitors were able to observe this very well. In the other parts, the audience experienced the further development of the electronically generated sounds.
The musical spectrum ranged from whispering to stormy winds
“Air” was the second part – a variation of ‘wind’ in the interplay between organ and electronics: with imagination, the various levels of wind and air could be imagined, from a gentle whisper to a violent storm.
Next, the organ took center stage – in “Organo pleno”, organ tones sounded from piano pianissimo to the abrupt conclusion at full volume to another electronic instrument In the penultimate part, “Pipe and Organ” combined a musical puzzle figure.
Finally, both artists once again demonstrated the virtuoso interplay of mechanical analog organ and electronically generated sounds. A long round of applause testified to the joy of a successful “experiment” in Bad Frankenhausen.
Peter Zimmer, Bad Frankenhausen
[Link to the article; published with permission of the author]
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
