ECM Festival Freiburg

The ECM festival in Freiburg from 8 – 10 May brought together some of ECM’s finest musicians with new music recently released, connecting music  from a variety of different backgrounds and idioms in the spirit of the label’s extensive catalogue.

The live festivities began on 9 May with Nitai Hershkovit’s solo performance at the historical Kaufhaus Freiburg. The pianist played music off of his new solo recording Call on the old wise, among improvisations and other pieces.

That same evening, Dominic Miller presented music off of his new album Vagabond at the Forum Merzhausen with his collaborators Jacob Karlzon on keys, Nicolas Fiszman on bass and Ziv Ravitz on drums.

Friday 10 May came the centrepiece of the festival: the tribute to Anja Lechner, demonstrating the cellist in three striking performances with varying formations throughout the evening, covering a vast and colourful repertory.

The first chapter of the evening featured the cellist in duo with guitarist Pablo Márquez. They presented music off of their celebrated Schubert Recording Die Nacht as well as new material from different composers.

Lechner was then joined by her long-time musical collaborator French pianist François Couturier for the second part of the evening. Their duo performance spanned material from several albums and various other backgrounds.

Last (and surely not least) Anja and François were joined on stage by clarinetist Mona Matbou Riahi. Together the three form the newly conceived trio liberamente, with a repertory that spans multiple cultures, idioms and sees the musicians trading in both notated music and improvisation.

On the last day of the festival, Vienna-based guitarist Zsófia Boros played in the quaint St. Lioba monastery just outside of Freiburg, presenting music by Mathias Duplessy, Quique Sinesi and more, featured on her recently released album El Último Aliento.

Going out with a bang, the finale of the festival on Saturday evening saw Polish saxophonist Maciej Obara and his quartet playing music off of their new record Frozen Silence with a hightened sense of energy, urgency and power.

All photos courtesy of Stefan Broß.