Happening twice a year, TonhalleLate are concerts specifically designed for younger people, and it was this event that was to be streamed. Starting at 10pm, the concerts are shorter than standard, and followed by several DJ sets in the bar afterwards ‘til the wee small hours. The concert and the after party were being streamed live to www.ustream.com which both increases the audience, and, through the social networking that surrounds the online events, encourages new audiences to come to further events.
When I arrived at the Tonhalle, the contrast of the elegant and opulent building with the piles of cables, amplifiers, lights, cameras and general techno-equipment was hilarious, but soon the team had all of their gear set up in unobtrusive places ready for the evening’s concert. The doors opened just after 9pm, and as I sipped a rather lovely cold glass of prosecco, the stream of people arriving in the bar increased rapidly as people grabbed a drink before bagging a good place in the auditorium, as seats are unallocated. I joined them just before 10pm and was amazed to see the place completely full, with most people aged between 16 and 40.
There were couples on dates, boy-band look-alikes and gaggles of young girls, all obviously eager to hear what was on offer. The orchestra, conducted by David Zinman, didn’t disappoint. A viola concerto by film composer Rozsa (of Ben Hur fame) performed by Tonhalle’s principal viola, Gilad Karni opened the concert. I felt the piece was a little meandering, but Gilad played amazingly, and it was great to see another orchestra featuring a principal player as soloist in the same way that Camerata do. This was followed by Bartok’s Miraculous Mandarin, and Zinman gave a cheeky listening guide before the performance proper, clearly relishing the rather risqué storyline! You could have heard a pin drop throughout, and there was rapturous applause at the end.
Everyone then pushed out into the bar, where the DJ set had already started, with SomethingALaMode and Kejeblos in full swing. The set was really clever, with live solo violin and cello set against recorded samples and electronica, which had the audience dancing away to, amongst other things, the theme from Winterreise! The Zurich crowd are pretty conservative compared to Manchester, with only a few of the boy-band-alikes and their entourage dancing very much, the rest seemingly content to watch them (and me...) dancing like lunatics! I got chatting to lots of people, including Tonhalle musicians and Nicholas, an engineer, who told me he had just started coming to classical music recently after having been at the last TonhalleLate with a friend. Since then he has been listening “mostly to Haydn, as I thought that was a good place to start.” I told him Dougie Boyd would definitely approve of his listening choice, and he asked me out to dinner the next evening! (Apparently single women are in short supply in Zurich; I might go back for their October event....)
It was fantastic to see such a young and enthusiastic audience for classical music, and I hope that we can perhaps start to see more of these type of events happening in the UK. I remember student events in nightclubs in Glasgow, and I know OAE have their Night Shift events - let’s see what else might pop up soon.
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