2020-02-17

This children’s concert was a journey to music

When my wife asked me if I wanted to take our daughter (5 yrs) to a children’s concert at the Cologne Philharmonic, I readily agreed. It ended up being extremely trying - but maybe not for any reason you might think.

My daughter is demanding. 10 minutes into the concert, she turns to me and whispers “This doesn’t sound like music.” I secretly agreed with her, but I felt it was important to encourage her to keep listening. So I did and we did… It began with a cacophony of tip-tapping on walls, rubbing windbreaker sleeves, stomping on the floor and other seemingly random sounds on every-day objects interspersed with humorous antics. These sounds increased in intensity, frequency and intensity until they culminated in one of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (Don’t ask me which one, I can never tell them apart…)! Then she was happy (and so was I. I was also relieved).

They then went back to sounds and more humorous antics until culminating in Brahms’ Lullaby. After all, the concert was in fact perfect for kids: It wasn’t too long, they built up to a fairly demanding piece and then released a little tension until quite literally saying good night.

Who we saw
The concert was performed by a group called “Ensemble Resonanz“, which is actually based in Hamburg. I read up a little about the concert and who they are beforehand (I guess that’s what you do in this so-called “information age”). I believe my exact words were “It all sounds a little too avant-garde for me, but I’ll give it a shot. If nothing else, it’s culture and it’s good for her.” As it turns out, it was good for me, too.