Work of the Week - Benjamin Schweitzer: nach Hause

On 7 October, Benjamin Schweitzer's new ballet nach Hause will receive its world premier at the Sophiensæle in Berlin with a score written for the unusual line up of the Anubis-Trio’s flute, bass clarinet and viola. The trio provide a musical counterpart to choreography by Martin Nachbar which is brought to life by a trio of dances to tell the tragic story of Swedish polar explorer Salomon Andrée and his two colleagues Nils Strindberg und Knut Frænkel who died on their Arctic balloon expedition in October 1897

The title nach Hause (Home) is taken from the last entry of Andrée's diary: "home for 7 o’clock..." which is likely to have been the final wish of the explorers who perished in the frozen wilderness. Andrée set off with his friends on 11 July in a hydrogen balloon from Spitsbergen in Norway on a route that should have taken them over the North Pole to Alaska, Canada or Russia depending on the wind. Serious problems arose soon after setting off and they were forced to land a third of the way through their journey and continue by foot. 30 years later their remains were found which included over 200 aerial photographs and Andrée's diary.

Schweitzer and Nachbar, who worked together on anordnen/verschieben in 2004, both share the view that music and dance should work in parallel and both make use of improvisations around fixed material in the work. Andrée's diary is used as source material to develop a ballet which has many parallels to the expedition with the balloon flight not only stands for man’s scientific achievements but it also refers to the attempt to escape gravity and to overcome place and time represented in the music and choreography. The ballet inevitably ends with the freezing of movement signifying the death of explorers.

The project is sponsored by The Hauptstadtkulturfond Berlin and further performances will take place on 8, 9, 12 and 13 October.

• Benjamin Schweitzer - Profile
  
• Website of the Sophiensæle