© Philharmonie Luxembourg / Alfonso Salgueiro
The announcement of the return to the Philharmonie of avant garde German pianist (and all-round lovely chap) Nils Frahm was greeted with much fervour, with tickets flying out the door and the ‘Sold Out’ sign being slapped on the event page quicker than even I, as a fan, expected.
But I was there. I was there in 2019 when he first walked the boards of the Philharmonie’s main hall and politely introduced himself, first in his native German, and then, with a hint of playful curiosity, in English. And though he may have chosen to proceed with English as the accepted form of vocal discourse for the evening, it was very much his craft at turning instrument into living being which defined the sound and language of that unforgettable evening.
This time around the playfulness was apparent from his first steps on stage, arriving to the rapturous applause of a fully packed Philharmonie, wearing an appreciative smile. Yet he remained silent, carefully adorning a pair of gloves, then wetting them with some water before playfully splashing the crowd.
Odd? Certainly, but all became obvious as Frahm moved to the left side of his menagerie of instruments and electronic equipment (itself occupying the Philharmonie’s stage as if part of a dystopian Terry Gilliam film set), before setting himself in front of an already spinning Glass Harmonica, and teasing out the ethereal sounds that would be the bedrock for opener “Harmonium In The Well” (taken from 2019’s ‘All Encores’ compilation).
It has to be stated that seeing Frahm in full flow is an impressive sight. His dexterity at moving between instruments - triggering sounds with his both his hands and foot-activated controllers - and building layers of sound and textures from almost nothing into physically moving and emotive passages can only be described as world class.
On this tour, entitled “Music for…[Luxembourg]”, Frahm has little in the way of an extensive set list, with only 5 defined ‘titles’ spread out over the duration of the concert, but this affords him room to flex original compositions into something grander than their original recording(s).
2nd on his list, a composition entitled “Music For Animals” (based on tracks from 2022’s album of the same name) was preceded by a request from Frahm for some audience participation, asking that we generate delicate ‘insect-type sounds’ to build up ambient noise. With a dutiful Philharmonie in the palm of his hand, even a slight technical hiccup with his legacy recording equipment couldn’t diminish the fun and playfulness as we all provided our part. His capture of the audience was then looped and built upon until a powerful, deep concoction of ambient, acoustic and electronic noise resonated through the air of the main hall.
3rd composition “Briefly” (which also featured on the album ‘Music For Animals’) was, again, expertly built-up with Frahm hunched, stretched and twisted as he moved from instrument to instrument, building and colouring his aural compositions with a deftness and ease which belie the true craft and underpinnings behind his music. Here, the simple lighting setup calmly came into play, cementing both the unfolding music and the actions of our performer.
With little pretense for the stage etiquette of encores, Nils amusingly stated that he would simply walk off stage and back on again so that he could continue without fuss. Yet he was still rewarded with rapturous applause from an incredibly appreciative audience.
His final two pieces - “Says” and “Hammers” - both featured on the album ‘Spaces’ (an ode to live recordings which deliberately features the sounds of audience members coughing and mobile phones unwittingly ringing during performances) and here “Says” is majestically constructed by Frahm to a cacophonous level which propagates into every corner of the main hall. Crowd pleaser “Hammers” is a fitting closer, with Frahm fully demonstrating his dexterity on piano with a stunning and energising rendition of one of his signature pieces, with the last struck note decaying into rapturous applause.
So, yet another incredible performance by the enigmatic Nils Frahm at Philharmonie, and one very much worthy of the standing ovation he received. To call him a piano man would be churlish. He’s very much a magician.
