LINZ EUROPE TOUR 2007-2009
Linz Europe Harbour Festival: Warmup Concert in Bad Ischl - 2nd July 2009
The evening before the start of the Linz Europe Harbour Festival Haydamaky, Zdob și Zdub, Claudia Koreck, Hubert von Goisern and his band, Klaus Doldinger and Karandila gave an exciting insight into the three-day festival in Linz that was soon to come.
Linz Europe Harbour Festival: Warmup Concert in Bad Ischl - 2nd July 2009
Photo: © Sarah Marchant
Linz Europe Harbour Festival: Warmup Concert in Bad Ischl - 2nd July 2009
Photo: © Sarah Marchant
Linz Europe Harbour Festival: Warmup Concert in Bad Ischl - 2nd July 2009
Photo: © Sarah Marchant
Linz Europe Harbour Festival: Warmup Concert in Bad Ischl - 2nd July 2009
Photo: © Sarah Marchant
Linz Europe Harbour Festival: Warmup Concert in Bad Ischl - 2nd July 2009
Photo: © Sarah Marchant
Linz Europe Harbour Festival: Warmup Concert in Bad Ischl - 2nd July 2009
Photo: © Sarah Marchant
Linz Europe Harbour Festival: Warmup Concert in Bad Ischl - 2nd July 2009
Photo: © Sarah Marchant
Linz Europe Harbour Festival: Warmup Concert in Bad Ischl - 2nd July 2009
Photo: © Sarah Marchant
Linz Europe Harbour Festival: Warmup Concert in Bad Ischl - 2nd July 2009
Photo: © Sarah Marchant
Linz Europe Harbour Festival: Warmup Concert in Bad Ischl - 2nd July 2009
Photo: © Sarah Marchant
Linz Europe Harbour Festival: Warmup Concert in Bad Ischl - 2nd July 2009
Photo: © Sarah Marchant
Linz Europe Harbour Festival: Warmup Concert in Bad Ischl - 2nd July 2009
Photo: © Sarah MarchantBrilliant festival opening
For the brilliant opening of the Linz Europe Harbour Festival on Friday, 3rd July Hubert von Goisern and his band, as well as Band Claudia Koreck, Karandila, Klaus Doldinger's Passport and others will be turning Linz harbour into an artistic madhouse.
The artists have already had a musical warmup. At the welcome party on Monday they rocked the artists' ship MS Wien that has been in the harbour since Sunday. The musicians have also been inspired by the spirit of the Linz Europe Tour 2007 - 2009 at numerous street concerts and jam sessions. Countless music fans in Lembach, Rohrbach, Freistadt, Mauthausen, Steyr and workers at voestalpine AG have had the pleasure of impromptu street concerts. Today, Thursday, Gmunden, Hallstatt and Bad Ischl were on the schedule too.
"It's great for us to play these concerts, because as we do so
the shared emotions of the journey by ship come back to life - we're
thrilled that it's gone like lightning for us. The immediacy of the street
concerts is a special experience too, you're very close to people. It's
important for us to play for all Upper Austrians and a street can be
a wonderful stage too."
Hubert von Goisern
"Every concert was a new surprise for us, because nothing was planned
precisely. It's interesting to watch the reactions of people on the street.
When we play our Roma songs with Hubert's band it's full of energy, it
really clicks with the audience and lots of them dance along."
Angel Tichaliev, Karandila
Hubert von Goisern & Friends: Street music in the Salzkammergut
Hubert von Goisern & Friends: Street music in the Salzkammergut - 2nd July 2009
Photo: © Sarah Marchant
Hubert von Goisern & Friends: Street music in the Salzkammergut - 2nd July 2009
Photo: © Sarah Marchant
Hubert von Goisern & Friends: Street music in the Salzkammergut - 2nd July 2009
Photo: © Sarah Marchant
Hubert von Goisern & Friends: Street music in the Salzkammergut - 2nd July 2009
Photo: © Sarah Marchant
Hubert von Goisern & Friends: Street music in the Salzkammergut - 2nd July 2009
Photo: © Sarah Marchant
Hubert von Goisern & Friends: Street music in the Salzkammergut - 2nd July 2009
Photo: © Sarah Marchant
Hubert von Goisern & Friends: Street music in the Salzkammergut - 2nd July 2009
Photo: © Sarah Marchant
Hubert von Goisern & Friends: Street music in the Salzkammergut - 2nd July 2009
Photo: © Sarah Marchant
Hubert von Goisern & Friends: Street music in the Salzkammergut - 2nd July 2009
Photo: © Sarah Marchant
Hubert von Goisern & Friends: Street music in the Salzkammergut - 2nd July 2009
Photo: © Sarah MarchantHallstatt: Street concert with Hubert von Goisern
Unofficial warm up for the Linz Harbour Festival in Hallstatt's Marktplatz
Yesterday afternoon, on the dot of 3pm things went wild in Hallstatt. Hubert von Goisern came to Hallstatt with lots of friends and a little bus for the PA system in order to turn the Marktplatz into a rock arena for an hour.
With him were numerous musicians and bands, with whom Hubert von Goisern had played on his journeys along the rivers. As well as Claudia Korek from Bavaria, Zdob Si Zdub from Moldova and other bands appeared too, who will be playing with Hubert this weekend at the Linz Harbour Festival. Of course there was music from and with the "Goiserer" too, firstly classics like Schleiniger.
Gmunden: Surprise coup by Hubert von Goisern
Hubert
von Goisern made a surprise coup this Thursday when he showed his friends
from the Danube nations the Salzkammergut. After a quick tip the day
before - the culture bureau was able to sort out a newsletter and a few
telephone bulletins - on Tuesday the multicultural musical troupe gave
a taster of the three-day Linz Europe Harbour Festival in
front of Gmunden's town hall.
The hot-blooded Bulgarian gypsy brass band Karandila marched across the square playing loudly, then Hubert von Goisern, the powerful Bavarian soul sister Claudia Koreck, the hardcore folk rockers Zdob și Zdub from Moldova and jazz rock legend Klaus Doldinger (saxophone) let loose on the Schubertplatz. The only one on the square who didn't clap, dance, or sing along was the stone Franz Schubert in front of the town hall.
On the same day there was another street concert in Hallstatt and a concert in the evening in the "Lehar" in Ischl on the programme.
About 200 people - initially surprised ("Is it really Hubert von Goisern playing?") and immediately completely delighted - enjoyed the hour to the full.
Hubert von Goisern & Friends: Street music in the Mühlviertel
Hubert von Goisern & Friends: Street music in the Mühlviertel - 30th June 2009
Photo: © Bernhard Flieher
Hubert von Goisern & Friends: Street music in the Mühlviertel - 30th June 2009
Photo: © Bernhard Flieher
Hubert von Goisern & Friends: Street music in the Mühlviertel - 30th June 2009
Photo: © Bernhard Flieher
Hubert von Goisern & Friends: Street music in the Mühlviertel - 30th June 2009
Photo: © Bernhard Flieher
Hubert von Goisern & Friends: Street music in the Mühlviertel - 30th June 2009
Photo: © Bernhard FlieherBeyond any closed spaces
Hubert von Goisern plays in the country: a report on a brilliant shamelessness and boundless stowage.
Anyone
who in the last climb to the peak of a mountain thinks about the valley
into which they must return is making a mistake. The way Hubert von Goisern's
going right now there's no danger of that. He's standing in the Kirchplatz
in Lembach. 1500 residents. Stormy weather. The musicians are sitting
in front of a flatbed lorry. While the Bulgarian Roma brass band Karandila played,
the instruments were set up beneath a canopy. It would so ever so kitsch
if it wasn't true: right at the moment when the Goiserer begins to yodel
the sky brightens from the east. A good hundred people have turned up.
Nothing had been announced, mobile phones quickly spread the excitement.
That's how it was in the last few days in Rohrbach, Steyr or Hallstatt
too.
"I'm not setting of to play in beautiful enclosed areas, I want to get out into life, out of the protected space," says Hubert von Goisern, before he gets onto the bus with which he, his band and musical guests from across Europe curve through the Mühlviertel. The idea of leaving protected spaces is to do with the village square tour. But it also describes one of the basic motives of the Linz Europe Tour, the "greatest effort, but in many respects the greatest accomplishment" in Hubert von Goisern's career.
The planning started four years ago. During the last two summers Hubert von Goisern travelled the Danube, played concerts in the south east, down to the Black Sea, then went north up to Rotterdam. At each of the stops on this journey local artists joined them on board. There was often little time to get to know each other. Now the Goiserer has invited these musicians to Linz. Some have been there for a few days. To set the mood and rehearse it's like a school trip into the unknown through Upper Austria before the Linz Europe Harbour Festival begins on Friday. This festival is to be the peak that can now be thought of at the end of the long journey. The valley afterwards is still not worth considering. Such thoughts don't happen either, because there is still a lot to do. Hubert von Goisern is tired, but: "It is only a relatively small effort in comparison to the whole project. And above all, I know and feel: it's worth it."
During the night-time rehearsals on a ship in Linz harbour there is no awkward currying of favour in preparation for the harbour festival. They have fun celebrating and talk and play music seriously. Something develops that is greater than playing music together for a concert event. The charm of the 70 year paddle steamer MS Stadt Wien is morbid. "And before the ship sinks we're floating one more time in great inspiration," says the Goiserer with a smile.
"It won't just be Hubert playing with the guests at the harbour festival. Other collaborations are in the offing", says Hage Hein, Goisern's manager for 20 years. So the mellow Bavarian songwriter Claudia Koreck will be appearing with powerful guys from Karandila. Hein beams happily in the town square in Rohrbach. "These days remind me of the old times of the breakthrough, of the early years of the career: Hubert in top form, extremely focused", he says and: "What's happening here is the essence. That's what essential."
"Such shamelessness, to simply go out and play - it's unbelievably brilliant," says Wolfgang Niedecken, boss of the Kölsch rockers BAP, one of the most successful German bands in the last 30 years. The cross-country party reminds him of the Rolling Thunder Revue by Bob Dylan. In the early 1970s, as he came out of a depression, he also put together a few friends and played somewhere in New England. "Of course it's a romantic notion, that through such an initiative people who would otherwise never meet will come together - and where possible start to get to know each other. On the other hand: you can see right here that this romantic notion works." In Freistadt he then became part of the proof: an open-mouthed BAP fan stood before him, unable to believe that Niedecken was now playing on the street in his hometown, guitar in hand.
The idea of uniting Europe with a ship, to explore the unknown and make it accessible however experiences boundaries on the street too. "Hopefully they won't steal anything," says a passerby as Hubert von Goisern introduces the Roma band Karandila in Rohrbach. It throws him for a loop and for a moment it looks as though he wants to pack up and go. But then he plays on against stupidity and ignorance, singing: "Somewhere in the world right now the sun is rising and a new day begins". After the show two ladies come, ask for autographs and also apologise: "Please don't remember us that way", they say. It will certainly be remembered. Just like the policeman in Steyr who pulled the plug, but didn't know that the group was prepared for everything with their own electricity supply. Or the discussion in Mauthausen, where the Romas Karandila would have liked to have played a funeral march in the concentration camp. But it was not permitted. These events remain, and are sometimes also "upsetting" (Hein). But they don't push to the foreground, because there were "many small, simple moments of beauty, because encounters outweigh, from which you can see that there is hope" - for living together and also for future musical collaborations.