Philipp Hochmair - Schiller Ballads Rave

Loud, bright, dull, and crashing. Philipp Hochmair, dressed in a camouflage suit as a "soldier of art," comes onto the stage. Lights and music begin. Three musicians set the sound. Electronic sound. Then: The Ring of Polycrates. A war story, pure adventure, it’s about action heroes in these Schiller ballads. In “The Glove,” it’s about the courage to conquer a lion and win the love of a lady. About almost superhuman friendship in “The Bond.” Philipp Hochmair performs Schiller’s poems and ballads. Together with his band, the actor Philipp Hochmair creates an evening filled with ballads and poems by Friedrich Schiller, carried by the spirit of revolution. In them, Schiller’s enthusiastic confidence in the ability of the individual to engage in the course of history is reflected. The breathless Sturm und Drang of Schiller is confronted with today’s acoustic experiences. The language, the rhythm, everything is eruptive, dynamic, performed with high energy yet controlled, shaped in verses and stanzas. Hochmair goes even further. As the beats become harder, he increasingly becomes the construction worker at Schiller’s word quarry. Music and language in conflict, then again in harmony – this is how the story of “The Diver” suddenly becomes visible, tangible; like in a film, you see the diver glide into the stormy water, battling death and ultimately surfacing as a happy victor. It is true avant-garde when something unseen and unheard happens like here – the classic language of the 19th century meets electronic music, well-known ballads collide with highly emotional performance. With his solo projects “Schiller Balladen Rave” or “Jedermann Reloaded,” Philipp Hochmair has created a cross-genre music theater format. At the end of the evening comes the climax: The Bell. More epic than ballad, like an internet series with countless episodes, Schiller and Hochmair tell the story of the creation of the bell, of suffering and pain, of death and birth and joy – the entire history of humanity. Schiller Balladen Rave – a trip at your own risk. Cast: Philipp Hochmair, Tobias Herzz Hallbauer – guitar/sampler, Jörg Schittkowski – synthesizer, electronics, sound machine, theremin, steelworks, Rajko Gohlke - electronics, drum machine. Sound and light design: Hanns Clasen. Video art: Lucia Flaig.