How does it work? You might ask yourself this question if you only know Lanvall (real name Arne Stockhammer, living in Wartberg/Aist) as the guitarist of the metal band Edenbridge. So how does a lover of heavy rock music get anywhere near a symphony? Simple answer: you have to ask him.
It was a commissioned work for the city’s anniversary, which Lanvall composed in 2019. Nothing came of the performance the following year (the reasons are known), which is why it will now be made up for at the end of June. The rock guitarist will premiere his work together with the Junge Philharmonie Freistadt, the Freistadt State Music School and the Hard Choir from Linz. “I’m glad things are getting serious now,” Lanvall said.
“The Freystadt Symphony” is a 25-minute piece of music that was composed for six subject areas such as the old town, nature or the gloomy city, and garnished with photos results in a small work of art. Lanvall knew the Junge Philharmonie as a client from working together on the “Voiciano” project. And she felt that he would be the right person to compose a symphony in the “late romantic direction” (Anton Bruckner, Antonin Dvorak, Richard Strauss). “That’s exactly the phase in classical music where I feel totally at home.”
First idea on the ski lift
The passionate winter sports enthusiast came up with the idea for the main motif while skiing in the Zillertal. After a long break, the (musical) story between the trips with Edenbridge (from Brazil to China) wrote itself, as he explains in the OÖN talk.
Due to his musical upbringing, which he says is a hybrid (first Wagner opera at the age of six, twelve years of piano training and thus a child of classical music before he migrated to the metal corner as a young adult), Lanvall does not see it as a change between musical worlds. “The interesting thing is that with Edenbridge the classical, symphonic context has to serve the band sound, while with the symphony it’s the other way around because the electric guitar has to integrate into the orchestral sound,” says the composer, musician and songwriter. It was important: “The work should be recognizable as a symphony.”
Can you make a regionality audible? “It’s difficult to say,” Lanvall says, “because everyone associates it with something different. When it comes to Freistadt, some might think more of a rural sound.”
“Freistadt has many facets”
Regardless of how much of the jubilee city is to be found in the symphony, one thing is undisputed: the musician first got to know the city very well while he was writing the work and afterwards. “You discover so many different facets. If you look at the old walls, then it’s really powerful.” And so it was also important for the composer to implement this in a bombastic way in the symphony. After all, the city has a lot of history.
At the premiere on June 29, Lanvall will perform the symphony live with orchestra and choir. This requires experienced live musicians to keep an eye on the “fine details” and play “cleanly”. And after that, the focus will go back to his band Edenbridge. The new album will be released at the end of August – with more rock than symphony.
(World premiere of the Freystadt Symphony on June 29, 8 p.m., Freistadt exhibition hall; tickets at oeticket.com)
Source: Nachrichten
