Philharmonix

Who’s actually having the most fun here? The world-class musicians who are here given an opportunity to play music that would never feature on the concert programmes of their famous orchestras? Or the audience, delighted by their virtuosity and passion? Well, that enthusiasm and that passion are among the reasons why members of the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras have come together to form the Philharmonix ensemble, for they get to play everything they’ve ever wanted. What unites them is the sheer joy they get from classical music – and yet their programmes take them far beyond it. Whether Philharmonix are playing pieces they’ve composed for themselves, or their own arrangements of pop songs, Viennese tunes, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, Gershwin or Piazzolla: classical music could never sound more entertaining, more engaging or indeed cleverer than this.

The music of Philharmonix is determined by the aesthetic and traditions of the world-leading orchestras to which they otherwise belong. Thilo Fechner (viola), Daniel Ottensamer (clarinet) and Ödön Rácz (double bass) play with the Vienna Philharmonic, while Stephan Koncz (cello) and Noah Bendix-Balgley (violin) play with Berlin. They are joined by the two soloists Christoph Traxler (piano) and Sebastian Gürtler (violin). The ensemble’s in-house composers are Koncz and Gürtler. All the members of Philharmonix have won numerous prizes and prestigious classical music competitions. And when they take to the stage together, it’s their audiences who are the winners: When else would a concert-hall audience sway to the rhythms of an ensemble, or laugh at their wit and cheer with enthusiasm – all while listening to world-class music?

The Andermatt programme of Philharmonix brings together Maurice Ravel’s La Valse and Johann Strauss’s Tales from the Vienna Woods alongside Irish folk music from the Titanic film and a csárdás from Star Trek – and, of course, classic numbers like “Swing on Beethoven” and the Philharmonix’s Baltic anthem “Noriet Saule Vakara” can’t be absent either. Sometimes elegant, at others tongue-in-cheek and full of energy, the music of Philharmonix is underpinned throughout by the musical heritage of their top-class orchestras. They’re virtuosic, full of good humour, and exude a contagious passion for good music.