Gonz Gets Arty

In late November, Gonzales and other performers recorded the fourth installment of the Arte Lounge TV show at Werner Otto Hall, which is part of the Konzerthaus facility in Berlin. The site of the Berlin Konzerthaus has quite a lengthy history of famous performers: Mozart, Paganini, Liszt, to name a few. While previous buildings were destroyed several times by fire and war, the current building opened in 1984 and features a gorgeous main performance hall. With a donation from German Entrepreneur Werner Otto, the orchestral rehearsal space was converted in 2003 into a modern, open hall, appropriately named “Werner Otto Hall”. Gonzales re-tweeted a photo of pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard and himself at the taping:

Pierre-Laurent Aimard & @chillygonzales at #ArteLounge. Different musical worlds unite in Berlin – that's great! pic.twitter.com/2K7XtpleQR

— Deutsche Grammophon (@DGclassics) November 26, 2014

We’re not sure which songs Gonzales performed, although it appears that Kaiser Quartett accompanied him. It’s rather fitting that Gonzales appears on a show produced by ARTE: the founding fathers of ARTE, François Mitterrand, Helmut Kohl and Lothar Späth, believed that a joint television channel should bring French and German citizens closer on a cultural level and promote cultural integration throughout Europe.

The ARTE Lounge show describes itself as “Classics Go Clubbing”; where new life can be breathed into the seemingly firmly established rituals of classical music. The fourth installment of the show was hosted by violinist Daniel Hope and presenter Alice Tumler.

The Arte Lounge shows will be shown every Sunday in February on ARTE – in the meantime, here are a few clips from other ARTE appearances.

In 2012, Gonzales appeared on the Arte.de show “Musical Salon” with cellist Vincent Segal and “Strings Deluxe” (now Kaiser Quartett) at the “Palais de Tokyo” in Paris. The music salons are not concerts, but “informal musical encounters with outstanding artists”.