Hamburg had Putin pet on one stage, Iranian women on the other

From our special correspondent:

Last night, the small hall of the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie saw the birth of a new ensemble for, no less, new music — led by the Iranian-German conductor Yalda Zamani and comprised of young performers all active with the leading contemporary music ensembles across Europe (Klangforum, Ensemble Modern, Athelas, etc.). The only veteran amongst them, if he could be called that at 40, was the harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, who as concerto soloist donated his services to the success of this new venture.

It was overall a pretty special night, with four of the five composers performed being living (the Japanese Takuya Imahori, the Iranians Anahita Abbasi and Farzia Fallah, and the British Gary Carpenter). An appreciative audience of some 200 people (not bad for a contemporary music ensemble on its first outing), many of them younger than 35, was treated to a performance on an enviably high level of virtuosity.

In the big hall,, some hundred metres away, the SWR-Sinfonieorchester were playing under Teodor Currentzis, a Greek-Russian conductor long financed by the Putin regime. What a night — in one hall we had an Iranian woman building something new with two Iranian female composers and showing the future of music, and in the other a very different human specimen. Sales for Yalda Zamani’s concert accelerated thanks to interest generated by Slippedisc.com, yet not one person from the Elbphilharmonie’s artistic planning staff condescended to attend the concert or (according to musicians) show up to rehearsal or to extend a welcome. Germany’s arts apparatchiks have a long way to go and little of real value to offer when it comes to being on the right side of musical history.