Sounds and Silence

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We are looking

for something very special.

Something to do with sound.

It's always like this

when working with Manfred.

Not only must you get the microphones...

into the correct position

and select the right filters,

you must also inspire the musicians...

so that something can be created.

Conductor, musicians and sound engineer...

have to become one organism

and then you get results.

What we are seeking

must also touch the musicians.

They also want to receive something.

This enthusiasm,

this seriousness must be transferred.

And this is the reason...

why the final version of the work

is often the best one.

We go through hell,

we're exhausted,

we have reached our limits,

but then deep inside us

we hear this pure sound,

which motivates us,

and Manfred lives it with us

and sometimes hears it

much better than us.

Then he becomes the composer's

companion in creation.

...that is how it works...

it has a beautiful movement...

For me the luminosity of sound

has always been a goal.

A beautifully ringing tone, for instance,

is like the streak of a comet,

like a falling star...

that discharges a light

and leaves a tail behind.

This is how I would like to capture

certain sounds in music.

And... that is what I am looking for.

I like to travel,

so as to distance myself from what

I always do in Munich or elsewhere.

Music has no fixed abode.

Music is where it is found,

where it takes place, where it develops.

I have always been interested...

in these borderlands between orient

and occident, and later on, the North.

These always had a really...

fundamental influence

on my musical thought.

A music producer

should also be a musician.

I put my bass in the corner

to become a producer,

because I had the feeling

I could do more for music that way,

devote myself more completely to it...

I played with American musicians,

while I was engaged in

a classical training;

at the same time I played the bass...

as a Jazz musician.

And that wasn't too bad,

but all the same I recognized...

I would never be able to play

like those I admired...

and heard from a distance,

so I decided to stand on the other side

of the microphone and record them.

My becoming a producer

was also a crucial decision,

because I thought that...

the sound I heard

from orchestral recordings...

was never the same as the one

I heard if I stood among the players.

And so I tried

to come a bit closer to reality,

and I worked at improving

my capacity to hear music...

applying myself

to my own school of listening.

And so on.

Formerly there were many oud players

in the big orchestras.

And they are still around,

but rarely heard.

The oud player was the central figure

in the classical Arab orchestra.

He was the orchestra's driving force.

Then the oud practically disappeared,

and now it is coming back again.

There are also musicians...

who devote their time to making ouds.

It's a recent development.

And it is wonderful.

You see, you must not forget that

there's very great tension on the strings,

so it must be well dried.

We are very eager

to hear what it will sound like.

I hope it will sound good.

As it is hard to find a good oud,

you're always worried

that something will happen to it.

So you shouldn't be

absent-minded at airports!

Manfred cannot be fitted into any category.

He is a producer, composer,

and musician,

rolled into one, but a poet, too.

With an extraordinary feeling for silence,

for rhythm,

for the tone colours of instruments.

Formerly I never had a producer

and did everything myself.

But since I've seen Manfred working,

I have complete confidence in him.

And wherever he may be,

he is totally committed.

This is the quintessence of a passion.

He is committed to the moment

and to the artists.

And that is unique.

Below, some of the hammers coming up

brush against the next one,

which means those do not strike correctly,

and only two of the three strings strike...

This "F" here is very bad,

it couldn't be tuned correctly at all...

Are you sure...

it sounds so much better now?

Well, let's say it is nearly as good

as it was when it was new,

because this is still,

basically, a good instrument.

And if you now straighten everything,

won't it all shift in the grooves?

- Yes.

- So will you adjust it all?

We'll reshape it...

Well, let's try it like this!

You must sing that, just sing it.

Not like in a concert hall

or on the stage, simply sing...

I always begin by working

with small motifs and ideas.

And it is a continuous toing and froing...

between the so-called western

and oriental instruments.

I always have a craving for both.

I'm working on a short history of opera.

It is a compilation of various pieces,

material which will then be worked on,

also subsequently, structurally...

and if, finally, you do not like it,

he pays for it...

When I was young, there were bicycles...

and only one or two cars.

Sometimes we heard music on the radio.

And there were gramophones...

whose needle had to be changed

after two or three playings.

So whenever the banda came to

the village, it was a great day.

To be able to hear music, there

had to be somebody there to play it.

Nowadays, this seems absurd,

music is everywhere today.

Formerly there was a certain magic

about music,

because there were moments with no music.

The banda's orchestration...

corresponds

to the register of classical opera.

Every Friday evening about 8 o'clock

there was an opera broadcast,

sponsored by "Martini Rossi",

the aperitif makers.

The programme was very popular.

Everyone knew the pieces,

just as one knows the pop songs today.

That music gives me shivers.

It is a question of popularity.

For example, in "Tosca"...

Puccini is telling a very emotional story.

But there are also

people who detest the opera.

With respect,

it's fine with me.

My position is hard.

I'm no academic musician,

I play the bandoneon,

I compose, without ever having attended

the conservatory or university,

but I have to play

with academic musicians,

with jazz musicians,

with folk musicians,

with tango musicians.

So what is my position?

Then I think, I have,

after all, created something new.

Play something...

Pretty girls...

Gianni!

Your wife will see you...

I've had an accordion made for me,

which has not much similarity

with a traditional accordion.

If he starts talking about his instrument,

we'll miss the train.

I haven't the mentality

of an accordion player,

I am the orchestra.

To play with him

I had an instrument made...

whose sound was as near as possible

to that of his instrument...

And why?

Because the clarinet

is the better instrument. -No, no.

Unfortunately Mozart

didn't know that instrument,

otherwise he'd certainly

have composed for it.

We will soon have finished our tour...

This is interesting -

like an abstraction of a piano key.

Should we include it...

It's really lovely, it moves around...

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