Nr. V/cis-moll, 2009 - 15´28, colour, sound, Germany 2009
Two threads of light draw oscillating diagrams against a dark background, diagrams which converge into sketchings. Simultaneously, one hears the Rondo-Finale of Gustav Mahler's 5th Symphony.
The traces of light follow the two hands of conductor Mariss Jansons during a rehearsal with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in March, 2006. Legible only to the orchestra musicians, Jansons´ hands translate Mahler's musical notations into a pictograph of codes and ciphers which now embody the conductor's own temperament and interpretation.
In the film, the graphic structures take shape and fade, to be replaced by others. The dynamics of music become a graphic document. As Gustav Mahler's Symphony unfolds, a new notation of the music originates, the visible “cardiogram of a breaking heart"* .
*Th. W. Adorno: Mahler, A Musical Physiognomy