- Original music rewritten, mixed and produced by Kristjan Järvi, inspired by Grieg’s ‘Morning Mood’ from Peer Gynt
- Music track from launch video of orchestra’s innovative ‘Musical Chain’ series of classical remix videos
- ‘Musical Chain’ continues in 2022 with more video and audio releases, including new music composed by orchestra musicians
Berlin 28 January 2022. The music track of ‘Midnight Mood’, the Baltic Sea Philharmonic’s first video in its digital project ‘Musical Chain’, is released today on Estonian label nEscapes. With the release of this first single in 2022, the Baltic Sea Philharmonic hopes that the world will soon see an end to the pandemic, which has deprived so many musicians and audiences of live music. The innovative ‘Musical Chain’ series of music videos features striking transformations of iconic classical pieces, and ‘Midnight Mood’ is inspired by ‘Morning Mood’ from Grieg’s Peer Gynt – a new beginning for 2022. Kristjan Järvi wrote, mixed and produced the track, which features 13 musicians of the Baltic Sea Philharmonic from Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Russia, Finland and Germany, who recorded themselves at home during the early summer of 2020 when all of Europe was in lockdown due to the pandemic.
‘Midnight Mood’ is the fourth single from the ‘Musical Chain’ series to be released on nEscapes; the first, ‘Ascending Swans’, a track inspired by the ‘Song of Praise’ from Sibelius’s Swanwhite Suite, came out on 24 September 2021. ‘Beethoven’s Twilight’, an electronics-infused take on the composer’s Symphony No. 5, followed on 5 November, and ‘Nutty Christmas’, a fun seasonal take on Tchaikovsky’s classic ballet The Nutcracker, was released on 3 December. More ‘Musical Chain’ tracks are set for release on nEscapes during 2022.
Sounds of a new beginning
The music for ‘Midnight Mood’ captures the anticipation of a new dawn. Soothing strings and electronics are slowly joined by more instruments, reflecting the growing light of a new Nordic day. It’s a track that is both calming and inspiring, intimate and elemental. The ‘Midnight Mood’ video was released on the Baltic Sea Philharmonic’s social media channels in July 2020 and has had more than 20,000 views on YouTube and almost 60,000 views on Facebook. The video, which was edited by a professional production team, intercuts black-and-white footage of 13 Baltic Sea Philharmonic musicians, who filmed themselves performing at home during the first lockdown, with striking Nordic landscapes.
Boundary-breaking audiovisuals, and musicians as composers
‘Musical Chain’ reflects the Baltic Sea Philharmonic’s boundary-breaking spirit, its passion for innovative collaborations, and its dedication to communicating through digital media the energy, style and creative freedom of its live performances. It is also a symbol of unity and solidarity in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic: inspired by the human chain formed by people across the three Baltic States in August 1989, it brings together musicians from across Europe with other artistic collaborators and professional video producers.
Recutting musical gems for the 21st century, the four ‘Musical Chain’ videos released in 2020 – ‘Midnight Mood’, ‘Beethoven’s Twilight’, ‘Ascending Swans’ and ‘Nutty Christmas’ – all feature footage of Baltic Sea Philharmonic musicians performing at home or in atmospheric landscapes or cityscapes. The release in August 2021 of ‘Midnight Sun’ took ‘Musical Chain’ in a new creative direction, with original music written and produced by Kristjan Järvi and visuals that combine monochrome images of nature and landscapes with eyecatching geometric animations. The music track of ‘Midnight Sun’ was also released as a single, in both a radio edit and a long version, on BMG/Modern Recordings.
‘Musical Chain’ will develop further in 2022 with Baltic Sea Philharmonic musicians creating their own original material as composers and producers, and collaborating with fellow musicians and creative professionals. New videos will be available on the orchestra’s social media channels and audio tracks will be released on the nEscapes label.
Baltic Sea Philharmonic – a revolution in music and culture
The Baltic Sea Philharmonic takes the orchestral concert experience to a new dimension. Every performance is a voyage of musical discovery, as the musicians perform the entire programme from memory, creating a one-of-a-kind artistic journey. Each concert is a unique spectacle of sound, light, visual art, technology, choreography and playing by heart, and under the electrifying baton of Music Director and Founding Conductor Kristjan Järvi every performance has a special energy that’s absolutely infectious. But even more than this, as a community of musicians from ten Nordic countries, the Baltic Sea Philharmonic transcends boundaries and has become a movement for bringing people together. Embodying all that is innovative and progressive about the Nordic region, this visionary ensemble is taking the traditional orchestral model further than ever before. ‘It is a living breathing creature, with boundless energy and enthusiasm for the new – an adventure in itself,’ says Kristjan Järvi.
