Frei_Spiel X – Das große Ganze

How do community, freedom, and euphoria come about? To find out, the performers of the Berlin-based collective She She Pop take a fascinated look at the orchestra of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie. They discover a monstrous collective body—a multi-armed, highly expressive being breathing with multiple lungs—and at the same time a polyphonic, creative community much like their own. Unlike She She Pop, the musicians are highly specialized and dedicated to the common cause: strictly dividing up the work, their gaze alternately focused on the person at the conductor’s podium or the sheet music, whose notation must be executed correctly.  

Where does the euphoria come from that this particular collective practice apparently unleashes in both participants and audience? What is the cost? What about the inner contradictions, idiosyncrasies, and special abilities—not to mention the inhibitions, shortcomings, personal worries, and doubts? How and where do these come through?  

For each edition of the biennial concert series Frei_Spiel, the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie opts for collaborations with other art forms and embraces the freedom to engage playfully in artistic experimentation. For *Das große Ganze*, new scores are now being created—based on the musical works of Diana Syrse, Darius Milhaud, and Grazyna Bacewicz, in which the collective body of the orchestra and the individual perspectives of the participating musicians enter into dialogue. A collective self-experiment in which the tension between service and expression, between individual duty and collective freedom, is brought to the fore.