Live Report: Andris Nelsons honoured with 13th Glashütte Original MusicFestivalAward
Ornatus-Mundi
'Time' - that is another important common denominator uniting both watchmaking and music. It is just only consequent that watch manufacturer Glashütte Original awards the 13th Glashütte Original MusicFestivalAward to Andris Nelsons, conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (and from 2017 on much closer to the manufacture, as Kapellmeister of the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig).
GO's own communication on the award is found here .
During the Dresden Music Festival 2016, under the motto of 'Time for Music' - the Latvian conductor gave a brilliant performance together with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Dresden's famous Frauenkirche in front of an enthusiastic audience, and was afterwards elebrated at a special reception organised by Glashütte Original. PuristSPro was there to report live:
6th of May saw a red eye flight from Vienna to Dresden, which completely made up for the early hours by a really spectacular scenery as seen onboard Lufthansa's brand new A320 Winglets (thanks to the friendly crew as well!):
A scenery which was only surpassed by a very welcoming city of Dresden. That alone was worth getting up, I guess:
For every watchlover's delight, Glashütte Original offered watches for us to wear. I made a comittment to myself to select the GO Seventies (see further below why!), but that watch was in such a demand that I backed out, and in the end we selected this outfit for the night:
Left, Glashütte Original Lady Serenade; right, Glashütte Original Senator Diary, a watch that certainly offers more than meets the eye (more further down!). Both watches are with red gold cases.
Nothing beats the attention to the detail when even the room keys (QF hotel, which also hosts the GO boutique in Dresden) put a smile on the horologist's face:
We then received our new wristbands...
... which granted us access to the rooftop reception, offering spectacular views on Dresden's landmark, the Frauenkirche:
In combination, of course, with refreshing cocktails.
And soon it was time to relocate into the festive atmosphere of the Frauenkirche Dresden itself, as the eagerly awaited performance of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andris Nelsons, was about to begin.
The orchestra performed the moving Max Bruch composition „Kol Nidrei“ (incidentially, this was the first secular adaptation of a jewish erudite music, and eventually caused Bruch to be considered 'jewish' by the Nazi regime), with Festival Director Jan Vogler as soloist on the cello, This was followed by Gustav Mahler's 9th symphony.
The international audience enjoyed an unforgettable evening – as did the prizewinner himself!
Following the enthusiastically received concert, Glashütte Original invited its guests to an intimate award celebration in honour of the laureate. Jan Vogler, Director of the Dresden Music Festival, noted:
(Andris Nelsons, Yann Gamard, CEO Glashütte Original, Jan Vogler, Director of the Dresden Music Festival)
"Every year the Glashütte Original MusicFestivalAward honors an artist whose music not only moves a cross-generational international audience, but who also invests a considerable amount of time and energy in helping talented young people. The transmission of knowledge involved in this effort, and a passion for an art rich in tradition, are essential criteria in the selection of the prizewinner" says Glashütte Original CEO Yann Gamard.
Gamard expands: "For this reason, and to underscore the importance to Glashütte Original of support for young people and for the maintenance of tradition, the Prize is crafted every year by two apprentices at our Alfred Helwig School of Watchmaking." It was the two apprentices which crafted the prize, Benjamin und Florian, who had the honour to offer it to Andris Nelsons.
Andris Nelsons expanded on this and emphasised the importance of the recognition for furthering the appreciation of classical music to a wider audience:
Then of course, another shot with the Senator Diary in red gold, a superb example of the technical prowess at GO, and the only mechanical calendar which can be programmed 30 days in advance. A beautifully tuned tone spring gives a voluminous alarm sound (thus it was a very fitting choice for the evening ;-)). Its also one of the few watches existing which have a dedicated iPhone app!
One member of our group brought along his Senator Navigator Pilot, featuring a flyback second to perfectly time the watch. The luminous indices are of different intensity to facilitate reading. I only had the chance to strap it on because the owner seized the opportunity of the boutique visit to buy a new Senator Observer...
The PanoMatic, another collection I did not pay required attention to this far. This is due to change certainly! The recent revision with the slimmer bezel completely transformed these watches, now adding the feel of elegant space to the dial and doing away with the former 'meatiness' of the cases. Very well done, particularly on this PanoLunar Tourbillon in red gold - almost my favourite, but this is still to come...
... because I spotted this artefact in the showcase, the PanoMatic Lunar in stainless steel with ruthenium dial with applied silver (rhodium) indexes and white gold hour, minute and subsidiary seconds hands. Its a natural fit on my wrist (and fortunately on my girl's wrist as well...). One of the best dials the brand currently offers, in my opinion!
Saving the best for last at least... the last one is special, but you cannot see why in this image: Only five (or so) of this Senator Chronometer exist, guess why?
That's is - not entirely! The following day we had the chance to visit the manufacture as well as the Glashütte watch museum - but this is subject of further reports! So, the finally image shall be confined to Dresden again, but this time to 'Dresden Original' airport...
This message has been edited by Ornatus-Mundi on 2016-05-17 13:04:48
GO's own communication on the award is found here .
During the Dresden Music Festival 2016, under the motto of 'Time for Music' - the Latvian conductor gave a brilliant performance together with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Dresden's famous Frauenkirche in front of an enthusiastic audience, and was afterwards elebrated at a special reception organised by Glashütte Original. PuristSPro was there to report live:
6th of May saw a red eye flight from Vienna to Dresden, which completely made up for the early hours by a really spectacular scenery as seen onboard Lufthansa's brand new A320 Winglets (thanks to the friendly crew as well!):
A scenery which was only surpassed by a very welcoming city of Dresden. That alone was worth getting up, I guess:
For every watchlover's delight, Glashütte Original offered watches for us to wear. I made a comittment to myself to select the GO Seventies (see further below why!), but that watch was in such a demand that I backed out, and in the end we selected this outfit for the night:
Left, Glashütte Original Lady Serenade; right, Glashütte Original Senator Diary, a watch that certainly offers more than meets the eye (more further down!). Both watches are with red gold cases.
Nothing beats the attention to the detail when even the room keys (QF hotel, which also hosts the GO boutique in Dresden) put a smile on the horologist's face:
We then received our new wristbands...
... which granted us access to the rooftop reception, offering spectacular views on Dresden's landmark, the Frauenkirche:
In combination, of course, with refreshing cocktails.
And soon it was time to relocate into the festive atmosphere of the Frauenkirche Dresden itself, as the eagerly awaited performance of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andris Nelsons, was about to begin.
The orchestra performed the moving Max Bruch composition „Kol Nidrei“ (incidentially, this was the first secular adaptation of a jewish erudite music, and eventually caused Bruch to be considered 'jewish' by the Nazi regime), with Festival Director Jan Vogler as soloist on the cello, This was followed by Gustav Mahler's 9th symphony.
The international audience enjoyed an unforgettable evening – as did the prizewinner himself!
Following the enthusiastically received concert, Glashütte Original invited its guests to an intimate award celebration in honour of the laureate. Jan Vogler, Director of the Dresden Music Festival, noted:
„Andris Nelsons, who is from Latvia, enjoyed his first musical successes in Germany and the USA and is now responsible for leading two traditional orchestras, both among the most renowned internationally, into the future. He motivates and inspires many young people all over the world to assume responsibility for an international world community that with education, culture and art points the way to humanism and peace.“
(Andris Nelsons, Yann Gamard, CEO Glashütte Original, Jan Vogler, Director of the Dresden Music Festival)
"Every year the Glashütte Original MusicFestivalAward honors an artist whose music not only moves a cross-generational international audience, but who also invests a considerable amount of time and energy in helping talented young people. The transmission of knowledge involved in this effort, and a passion for an art rich in tradition, are essential criteria in the selection of the prizewinner" says Glashütte Original CEO Yann Gamard.
Gamard expands: "For this reason, and to underscore the importance to Glashütte Original of support for young people and for the maintenance of tradition, the Prize is crafted every year by two apprentices at our Alfred Helwig School of Watchmaking." It was the two apprentices which crafted the prize, Benjamin und Florian, who had the honour to offer it to Andris Nelsons.
Andris Nelsons expanded on this and emphasised the importance of the recognition for furthering the appreciation of classical music to a wider audience:
“I am so honored to receive this prestigious prize from Glashütte Original and the Dresden Music Festival. I strongly believe that music is a fundamental right for human beings, a food for our souls as I have often said, and its value cannot be held highly enough. Classical music must be accessible for communities and people of all ages, and it is incredibly important that we keep encouraging audiences - both our beloved supporters and newcomers - to experience music making as much as possible.
Enhancing accessibility to classical music – that is something we hope very much to build on, and I must say we all individually must keep striving to do more. To this effect, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and I are so excited to be back in Europe and share our deep passion and commitment directly with the wonderful audience in Dresden!”
It is the mastery of time and the pursuit of excellence where Nelsons drew a parallel between the art forms of music and fine watchmaking. He demonstrated a remarkable understanding of the intracicies of a clockwork and the dependancies between its constituents, just like a symphony orchestra.
In the spirit of support for young people in the arts, Andris Nelsons
has chosen to dedicate the prize money (€ 25.000) to music education and
outreach programs in his home country, Latvia, and in the cities of his
two partner orchestras, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig.
With the acceptance of the 13th Glashütte Original MusicFestivalAward, Nelsons joins the ranks of previous winners of the prize include such renowned artists as Gustavo Dudamel, Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Hélène Grimaud, Hilary Hahn, and the fado-singer Mariza.
With the acceptance of the 13th Glashütte Original MusicFestivalAward, Nelsons joins the ranks of previous winners of the prize include such renowned artists as Gustavo Dudamel, Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Hélène Grimaud, Hilary Hahn, and the fado-singer Mariza.
Sure, we were also invited to the Glashütte Original boutique Dresden, conveniently located in the hotel complex, to get our feet wet with some of the manufactures fantastic timepieces ('some' here means: all we would like to see...).
Let me start with a watch that is surprisingly growing on me, the GO Seventies Panorama Date. Here in steel with its stupendous blue dial which initially caused all my attraction, with its finely graded shading passing from a lighter centre to a darker periphery:
Then of course, another shot with the Senator Diary in red gold, a superb example of the technical prowess at GO, and the only mechanical calendar which can be programmed 30 days in advance. A beautifully tuned tone spring gives a voluminous alarm sound (thus it was a very fitting choice for the evening ;-)). Its also one of the few watches existing which have a dedicated iPhone app!
One member of our group brought along his Senator Navigator Pilot, featuring a flyback second to perfectly time the watch. The luminous indices are of different intensity to facilitate reading. I only had the chance to strap it on because the owner seized the opportunity of the boutique visit to buy a new Senator Observer...
The PanoMatic, another collection I did not pay required attention to this far. This is due to change certainly! The recent revision with the slimmer bezel completely transformed these watches, now adding the feel of elegant space to the dial and doing away with the former 'meatiness' of the cases. Very well done, particularly on this PanoLunar Tourbillon in red gold - almost my favourite, but this is still to come...
... because I spotted this artefact in the showcase, the PanoMatic Lunar in stainless steel with ruthenium dial with applied silver (rhodium) indexes and white gold hour, minute and subsidiary seconds hands. Its a natural fit on my wrist (and fortunately on my girl's wrist as well...). One of the best dials the brand currently offers, in my opinion!
Saving the best for last at least... the last one is special, but you cannot see why in this image: Only five (or so) of this Senator Chronometer exist, guess why?
That's is - not entirely! The following day we had the chance to visit the manufacture as well as the Glashütte watch museum - but this is subject of further reports! So, the finally image shall be confined to Dresden again, but this time to 'Dresden Original' airport...
Thank you GO for this wonderful two days!
Cheers,
Magnus
P.S.: for this report all images were taken with an iPhone. More of the watches to come (but then using a real camera!)!
This message has been edited by Ornatus-Mundi on 2016-05-17 13:04:48
Comments:
MTF May 14th, 2016-07:16
Glashuette Original loved PuristS in the past and vice versa Thanks for the report. It brought back memories of our first PuristS on Tour vist to a German manufacture in 2003. PuristS were the first visitors to the (then) renovated GO factory. Friends, Drinks, Food, Watches,...Wonderful! Bier & Friends Former CEO M...
stromer May 14th, 2016-07:32
Thanks a lot, Magnus! For this terrific report. As you might know I had the chance to join the celebrations last year, and it was a wonderful event. Handing out watches to be tried during these days seems to be a new treat this year and I like the idea. Is the special feature ...
Ornatus-Mundi May 17th, 2016-01:58
Breguet terminal curve - I will need to inquire...
Jocke - Bad Santa May 14th, 2016-08:57
Thanks for a great report Magnus for a second I believe it was Chip Foose at the right at the first pic. ))))))
Dr No May 14th, 2016-17:43
Music is the highest form . . . . . . of art; watchmaking, the highest craft. While my passion for the Rolling Stones is well known, the groundwork laid by those who came before is also of personal interest, including the classicists. Delius is a favorite; Borodin, another. This morning...
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