Once again this season, musicians from the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich are touring Zurich’s community centres with a new chamber music series. ‘Kunterwunderbunt’ is the title of the story (or stories) devised by Nelly Danker, who is now also directing the production herself. It centres on a girl called Yvi (played by Madeline Engelsmann), who, in a moment of boredom, discovers all manner of colours – and with them, all manner of timbres.
This is brought to life by the music of Rodolphe Schacher, who has set the four parts to music in very different ways for various ensembles. ‘Children can understand and accept much more than adults; they have no expectations of the music,’ he says in an interview: that’s why anything is possible – from grey music, which is meant to sound particularly dull, to bright red, black-and-white and gleaming golden sounds.
At the launch of «Kunterwunterbunt», the children not only followed the action on stage with open ears and eyes, they also sang along, learnt about instruments, did some crafts and asked questions. The fact that some of them then went on to try out the harp wasn’t part of the plan, but it simply happened – as a wonderfully colourful spur-of-the-moment idea, so to speak.
The remaining parts of the series, entitled ‘Rot, Rot, Rot’ and ‘Schwarz und Weiss wie Zebra’, will take place at various community centres across the city; in July, the grand ‘Festival of Colours’ will be held at the Kleine Tonhalle.
