I spent a day in Stavanger observing and documenting noted composer and conductor Péter Eötvös working with a selected number of participants from the Norwegian conductor’s program (Dirigentløftet/Talent Norge/Sparebankstiftelsen).
Maestro Eötvös was this season’s Composer in Residence of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, also conducting his own works.
Here are a few impressions from their last workshop day.
The Trondheim Symphony Orchestra & Opera recently performed the Christmas Oratorio by J.S. Bach at the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, a tradition before the Christmas holidays.
The cathedral has just finished installing a completely new lighting setup, which really showcases the (vast) space. This was also the first time that I could test my latest lens purchase, the Leica 18mm Super Elmar for the M-system.
All these shots were captured handheld using the Leica M10 and the Visoflex typ 020 electronic viewfinder. This lens may be tiny in its stature, but it’s a beast when it comes to perspective and performance. These images can almost be considered as snapshots since no tripod was used (shutter speed of 1/30s) and subsequently the ISO-values were pretty high at 6400.
It was exciting to finally be able to take in so much of the architecture, in one single frame.
The impressive organ pipes served in my mind as “musical architecture”.
More images from the performance and a group portrait will follow shortly.
I got to witness and photograph the legendary Finnish conductor and composer Leif Segerstam at work on Friday night. He has been in Trondheim this week conducting both the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra and the Trondheim Sinfonietta. I'm on sick leave from playing at the moment, so I didn't actually get to play under his leadership in the orchestra, which is sad of course but such is life. I'm happy that I have another artistic outlet to turn to when playing isn't an option.
He is quite a unique figure in the music business, in almost every possible way. We might all think that we're special and highly personal in the way that we “conduct” ourselves. However, in Leif Segerstam we may have met our master.
The lighting at the venue was less than ideal for photography, which meant both strange shadow patterns and absurdly high ISO-values. The light was mainly focused on the conductor's hair and not his face. Problem? Yes. Artistic opportunity? Could be.
It took me a while to decide how to best bring these images to life, but I ultimately decided to go for a desaturated look and feeling. The lighting was basically harsh spotlights in front and multicoloured stage lights at the back of the ensemble setup. I could have gone for a black and white edit of course, but I liked this silvery “in between”-look. The facial expressions and the “human patina” come to life in this way, in my opinion. Like the “Segerstam-way”, it's a personal artistic choice on my part bringing my take on the occasion to the viewers.
For this shoot, I wanted to test two camera setups. I brought my own Sony A7RIII and a Sony A9ii-loaner. The lenses were primarily the 24-70mm f2.8 GM and the 70-200 f2.8 GM. I did also fire off some shots with my Sigma Art-lenses (85 and 135mm). I'm not the biggest fan of zoom lenses, but this time I wanted to see if my feelings on the matter could be proven wrong. Preliminary verdict: The A9ii is significantly better than the A7RIII in these kind of conditions, giving me cleaner files with no apparent banding issues (which is the main reason for this test). Zoom lenses, well, great for versatility but the ISO-values at f2.8 compared to f1.4-1.8 are hard to swallow. Maybe an A9ii for fast paced performances in low light and the Leica SL2 for those high resolution and high fidelity portraits and personal projects? Dreaming is allowed, right?!
Anyway, I'm glad that I had the opportunity to experience Maestro Segerstam and to do some gear testing this weekend.
Ole
My two Leica cameras saw a lot of action on our day off i Busan, the second largest city in South Korea. I was especially eager to test the latest addition to my arsenal of camera gear, the Leica M10, in a real world scenario. I’m happy to report that this old school manual camera has been featured numerous times professionally during this tour, which I didn’t expect going into this assignment. The split second images captured with the M10 might not be as crisp and technically “perfect” as those taken by its more modern counterparts, but there’s a special feeling when capturing and looking back at an image that you have taken without any of the modern conveniences. That is very similar to playing a classical instrument, as mentioned before on this blog.
I hope that you will enjoy this little taste of Busan, in full manual mode.
Ole
The Trondheim Symphony Orchestra & Opera has landed safely in Seoul, South Korea. I personally have been to Seoul once before, many years ago, touring all over Asia with the Trondheim Soloists and violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter. Touring with a full sized symphony orchestra is something quite different, logistically, compared to travelling with a smaller string ensemble. Here are some first impressions after touching down at Incheon International Airport outside Seoul.
Ole
My orchestra, The Trondheim Symphony Orchestra & Opera, is soon leaving home base in Norway for a tour of South Korea. I’ll be doing double duty as co-principal of the viola section and tour photographer for the duration of this trip. The images will primarily be delivered to and distributed by the communications office of the orchestra, but I will also try to update my own blog with pictures and some accompanying text. I hope that you will enjoy following us as we head to Asia!
Here are some behind the scenes moments from our concert in Trondheim last night.
Ole
Hello from Berlin,
I’m spending the month of March in this awesome city of culture. The municipality of my hometown of Trondheim (Norway) has very kindly allowed me with to stay in their “artists apartment” here in Berlin for a whole month. This is a rather unique opportunity for an artist like myself, that’s allowing me to get to know the cultural scene of Berlin in greater depth than is possible during a short visit. There’s so much going on at any given time here, which one expects of a world class city. The more you experience, the more you realise the scope of whats on offer, and that you cannot possibly take it all in, in the course of just one month. That’s of course not entirely a bad thing, it just means that you have to return again and again.
The focal point of any trip to Berlin, as a classical musician and photographer, is of course Die Philharmonie. The home of the mighty Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. There are so many great orchestras and concert halls around the world, but can they top this power house of music I wonder? There’s something of a “Gesamtkunstwerk” going on when you visit this place, located close to Potsdamer Platz. You can see the architect Sharoun’s golden and edgy building from afar. When you enter into this structure, you wander around in these angled and quirky shapes. The evident reason for the shape of this building hits you when stepping into the main performance hall. You as an audience member are surrounding the stage and the sound surrounds you. An immersive feeling, if you’re on stage performing or comfortably seated in the hall as a member of the audience. Do make the time to come to Die Philharmonie and experience the true power of the performing arts. If you would like to see more of the hall, the resident orchestra and behind the scenes footage, I highly recommend checking out the orchestra’s own photographer Monika Rittershaus. You can find her work online and, believe it or not, in good old fashioned books. Her book “Moving Music” is a wonderful documentation of Sir Simon Rattle’s tenure as chief conductor of the orchestra.
I still have a few days left in Berlin before I head home, and those days will be filled with cultural activities and of course photography.
Bis später,
Ole
Die Philharmonie