On 3 March, Basel Sinfonietta presents »#Metoo, Hitchcock«, the world premiere of a new film score by Moritz Eggert for the silent film classic by Alfred Hitchcock, »Blackmail«. It will be conducted by new chief conductor Titus Engel, whose debut in October in Basel and two guest appearances at the Ruhrtriennale in Bochum received rave reviews and sold-out halls. The premiere takes place as part of the third subscription concert at Burghof Lörrach (Germany). The concert is being recorded in collaboration with ZDF/ARTE and 2eleven music film and will be broadcast on ARTE at a later date.
»Blackmail« is a British thriller from 1929, masterfully directed by Alfred Hitchcock. With a remarkably topical subject matter, Hitchcock tells a true #metoo-story in the context of that time in this classic silent film. He shows his protagonist successfully fighting against various forms of male intrusion and blackmail - in powerful images that remain fascinating to this day.
Moritz Eggert, the self-proclaimed »Bad Boy of New Music«, ruthlessly focuses on the stereotypes of New Music and delights in mocking them. For Hitchcock's classic, he wrote a deliberately humorous and above all emotional score »from the gut«, but also one that develops artistic independence and pays homage to film composer Bernhard Herrmann, whom Eggert deeply admires.
»Blackmail« shows Hitchcock's predilection for »musical« cuts, which actually have their own rhythm and already evoke the later film style without music yet existing. Writing a new score for a Hitchcock film must therefore somehow be based on this style; it would almost be a perversion to underlay everything with a generic aesthetics of New Music that bears no relation to Hitchcock's intentions and merely vaguely illustrates everything.
Moritz Eggert
I am very much looking forward to the premiere of Moritz Eggert's music for »Blackmail«. The score that has just been handed to me, always a beautiful moment for a premiere, is a very finely crafted score with special timbres such as the cimbalon and a quarter-tone piano, much rhythmic drive and harmonic tension. It is composed with great precision to fit perfectly with the film without simply illustrating it. Moritz Eggert's music gives a new sonic dimension to this cinematographic masterpiece, allowing it to be experienced in an entirely new way.
Titus Engel
With »#Metoo, Hitchcock«, Basel Sinfonietta continues its tradition of film music. In 2007, the recording of Dmitri Shostakovich's reconstructed original music for the silent film »Odna – Alone« from 1931 by Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg was released in collaboration with ARTE. This was followed in 2011 by Shostakovich's film music for the 1929 film »New Babylon« on the Naxos label. In its first collaboration with Moritz Eggert, Basel Sinfonietta opens a new chapter in this tradition.
info & tickets: baselsinfonietta.ch/en/
