From 24 to 29 November 2015, the Philharmonie will be offering six days of music discovery in the form of the Rainy Days Festival.
This year the Rainy Days Festival will be based on a theme borrowed from Alfred Hitchcock - suspense. Music is able to create tension just as well as a film creato, offering the listener just enough information to remain on high alert. When you know what's going to happen, the nagging question which sends shivers up your spine becomes 'When?'.
Tuesday 24 - Wednesday 25 November : The Master of Suspense
The Cinémathèque will open the festival with 'Blackmail', before the Philharmonie opens with 'The Lodger' the following day. Hitchcok's first films will be presented here with new soundtracks composed for the festival.
Wednesday 25 November : Hold Your Breath
Following 'The Lodger', a performance in the Foyer with a soprano and a freediver for a miniature Wagnerian drama in a pool.
Thursday 26 November - The Suprise
Why did Joseph Haydn subtitle his Symphony N°94 'La Surprise'? Can the answer be found in the German subtitle 'Mit dem Paukenschlag'? Two hundred years later, Helmut Lachenmann feeds this surprise, this music that makes "you cling to your chair and that we [cannot] detach ourselves from the sound events that challenge us".
Thursday 26 November : Hold Your Breath
Once the surprise has passed, a performance will be waiting in the Foyer. Who will have the leading role: the soprano dressed all in white of the Mozartkugel she samples whilst singing?
Friday 27 November : To Hell with Rehearsal
"The more that instrumental music moves away from the repetitive and the mechanical [...] the more it requires an intepreter [...] aesthetically surprising and creative". It was Stockhausen who said it, and it will be the pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard who will surprise you.
Saturday 28 November : 7 Metre Fall
Before composing his Piano Concerto, Simon Steen-Andersen first recorded the instrument falling from the top of an old warehouse. With the piano prepared, the work could begin. On stage will be an orchestra, video, samples and a piano...this one in perfect condition.
Sunday 29 November : The Key to the Attic
Enno Poppe "does not belong to any school. He makes his own rules. This is real genius". His Speicher (attic, storage, memory in English) does not take the listener on unknown roads but recognised roads allowing you to anticipate the future. You have the key to the attic. Will you use it?
To book tickets and find out more information, visit www.rainydays.lu or contact the Philharmonie at +352 26 32 26 32.
Photo by Philharmonie
