Philharmonix – Live from Taggenbrunn Castle

Philharmonix brings together seven musicians associated with the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic orchestras: Noah Bendix-Balgley and Sebastian Gürtler (violin), Thilo Fechner (viola), Stephan Koncz (cello), Ödön Rácz (double bass), Daniel Ottensamer (clarinet) and Christoph Traxler (piano). Calling itself “The Vienna Berlin Music Club”, the ensemble deliberately crosses genre boundaries, combining classical virtuosity with jazz, klezmer, Latin music and pop.

At the Festspiele Taggenbrunn 2022, the programme covers a wide range: from the “Turkish Ouverture” after Mozart and “Swing on Beethoven” via the traditional “Odessa Bulgar”, Richard Strauss’s “Salome’s Dance” and Shostakovich’s “Fuga in C” to Dvořák’s “Humoresque” and Brahms’s Hungarian Dance No. 1. Along the way come Freddie Mercury’s “Don’t Stop Me Now”, Quincy Jones’s “Soul Bossa Nova” and Sting’s “Englishman in New York”. All arrangements are by Philharmonix.

The setting is Taggenbrunn Castle in Carinthia, where the stage stands beneath a glass roof between the castle’s old stone walls. For the television version, a rail camera, a cable camera and a drone complemented the conventional camera positions.