Up-close with Klaus Mäkelä, the Oslo Philharmonic and The Nordic Conductor´s Forum.

Péter Eötvös in Stavanger

I spent a day in Stavanger observing and documenting noted composer and conductor Péter Eötvös working with a selected number of participants from the Norwegian conductor’s program (Dirigentløftet/Talent Norge/Sparebankstiftelsen).

Maestro Eötvös was this season’s Composer in Residence of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, also conducting his own works.

Here are a few impressions from their last workshop day.

Berlin meets Røros, through music.

I have a passion for music, obviously, and for photography. When those two worlds meet, then I’m really in my “happy place”. That happened recently in Røros (Norway), a wonderful place in so many ways. It’s a town of great beauty and character, and consequently included on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Combine that with just as welcoming and dedicated locals, world class musicians from the Berliner Philharmoniker mentoring young talents from Norway and it would be hard imagining a better day out in the field.

The day started at 4AM, catching an early train to Røros and ended back home again at around 11PM. The client, “Vinterfestspill i Bergstaden” (a festival being held in March each year), wanted promotional images of Røros, the people involved locally and the visiting artists. A real challenge fitting all those things into a single day of shooting, but seeing the different images now appearing on the festival’s website and social media platforms, I think that the collaboration went quite well. Take a look at https://vinterfestspill.no and judge for yourself.

I’m delighted to be going back to Røros for the festival in late March.

Portrait session

I had the pleasure of doing a studio portrait and “lifestyle” session with chief conductor of the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra & Opera, Han-Na Chang, recently.

This session continued our collaboration from last year, when we made a series I called “Han-Na Chang in Trondheim”.

All these images are now the visual backbone of her website and press material:

https://www.hannachangmusic.com

I have now switched to an all Leica-setup, and I am delighted with how this system works for me both on location and in the studio. Like everything, it has its quirks but the gorgeous image fidelity makes it all worth while. I enjoy that the images coming straight out of the camera is so close to where I want them to be, the editing is more about tweaking than completely rebuilding the image file.

Our planned “conductor on stage and in action”-session sadly had to be postponed due to the Covid-situation, but will hopefully happen later this spring.

Gear used:

Leica SL2s

Leica Vario-Elmarit-SL 24-90mm/f2.8-4 ASPH.

Leica Vario-Elmarit-SL 90-280mm/f2.8-4 ASPH.

3x Profoto B10 studio strobes with various light modifiers.

A Journey with Mozart

Leif Ove Andsnes preparing an all Mozart-program with the musicians of the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra & Opera in October 2020.

It is an absolute joy to stand “ringside” and hear the results of that intensive listening process and the subsequent interaction between the soloist and the orchestra. A journey of discovery that never ends.

On stage

I had one piece off in last week’s concert programme, so I took the opportunity to make some test shots with my current camera setup. I found myself almost instantly limited by a few factors, such as a combination of access and focal range, but in the end I’m quite pleased by the results that these limitations yielded.

For this kind of scenarios I’m currently shooting with a Sony A7RIII and lenses ranging from 24 to 400mm. I’m primarily a prime lens shooter (whenever I can). I find that prime lenses give the subject more character, and subsequently me more artistic opportunities to express that character. One is of course limited to a fixed focal range, but as seen in these images I think that with a little ingenuity that is rather a creative opportunity rather than exclusively a crippling limitation.

Most of the images seen here were captured with a Sigma Art 135mm-lens for the Sony FE-mount system, either in full frame or in crop sensor format to gain a little more reach. To be as unobtrusive as possible, not disturbing the rehearsal process, I positioned myself quite far back on stage and mostly out of sight. This meant that I couldn’t get the usual close ups of the conductor, but ended up doing sort of “environmental action portraits” instead. This resulted in a combination of a cinematic(ish) view of the stage along with the subject separation and compression that you get using a telephoto lens.

I chose to incorporate light reflections of a grand piano and a Wagner tuba to hopefully create some depth and definition to the images. The edit is also centred around the main subject, making her mental and visual connection with the musicians of the orchestra as apparent as possible.

You probably know by now that I absolutely love my Leica cameras, but i have to admit that the Sony system really shines in this kind of scenario. Great dynamic range and autofocus capabilities are pretty essential for shooting in dim/contrasty locations with this much movement. I would love to try the Sony A9ii with the behemoth 400mm f2.8 at some point, that should be pretty amazing for this kind of stuff.

But for now: “Practice, practice, practice..”

Ole

Comic relief

There is no doubt a lot of seriousness and focus involved in making music together at a high level, but every once in a while you capture a bit of off the cuff comedy.

Ole

"Practice, practice, practice"

The punchline from the famous joke “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” couldn’t be more true for a musician. The time spent on stage, performing for the audience in the evening, is only the tip of the iceberg. Finding time and a place to practice and to focus on the task at hand is crucial, whether it is in a Seoul hotel room, on stage at the venue or in a dimly lit backstage corridor.

Ole

Arrived in South Korea

The Trondheim Symphony Orchestra & Opera has landed safely in Seoul, South Korea. I personally have been to Seoul once before, many years ago, touring all over Asia with the Trondheim Soloists and violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter. Touring with a full sized symphony orchestra is something quite different, logistically, compared to travelling with a smaller string ensemble. Here are some first impressions after touching down at Incheon International Airport outside Seoul.

Ole