Posthof Linz

Hochmair: Everyman roars against fate

Philipp Hochmair brought a piece of classical literature into the present day with beats.(Bild: Einöder Horst)

What an experience! Philipp Hochmair, the new Jedermann, turned the pages of a text by Adalbert Stifter at the Posthof in Linz. He turned the dusty literature into a grandiose, experimental trip with electro sound.

"Stifter, where are you? Come to us - to the Posthof!", Philipp Hochmair implores Adalbert Stifter and there is a tension in the air, as if the poet giant is actually descending. What a start for "Der Hagestolz", Stifter's text, which Hochmair staged on Friday at the Posthof Linz as a great head cinema.

It doesn't work without a band
The show successfully straddled the line between high art of recitation and underground concert. Alongside Hochmair on stage was the band Elektrohand Gottes with Fritz Rainer (drums), Hanns Clasen (guitar) and Upper Austrian Peter Heftberger (tuba).

The latter opened up the panorama of Stifter's landscape, through which Hochmair sends the young Victor, with delicate brass music: the kind-hearted orphan leaves his foster mother to visit his uncle, who teaches him a lesson.

(Bild: Stephan Brückler)

Two souls in one breast
"A confrontation between two very different points of view. One still has life ahead of him, the other already behind him - both speak to me from the soul at the same time," said Hochmair to "Krone", who wrote the solo "Hagestolz" to mark his 50th birthday. He is known to have a penchant for impressively dusting off classics.

Unusually tame
This time, however, the future new Jedermann on Salzburg's Domplatz was unusually demure. No jumping around, no ecstasy, just pure reading. Admittedly, he generated great emotions in waves, with cascades of sound rising and falling with demanding drums and howling electric guitar.

Birdsong and splashing water occasionally refreshed Stifter's broad panorama. Some sentences were spoken into the loop machine, remaining as echoes for longer. Overall, a dynamic trip was achieved, full of respect for the highly aesthetic language, which was anchored in the present with this ingenious soundscape.

Love at the breaking point
In the end, it was wild after all, as Hochmair roared out "Love will Tear Us Apart", once Joy Divison's biggest hit, now a desperate rebellion against the power of fate. Standing ovations!

Service: Philipp Hochmair and "Der Hagestolz" and others: March 8, Stadttheater Hallein, Salzburg; March 10, Tischlerei Melk, Lower Austria; June 8, University of Salzburg; June 16, Theater Meggenhofen, Upper Austria.