As of: March 26, 2024, 5:58 p.m
By: Michael Schleicher
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Hard to stop after the fire alarm in Munich: Chilly Gonzales in the Isarphilharmonie.
© Michael Schleicher
Chilly Gonzales performed in Munich for two evenings.
The Isarphilharmonie was sold out twice, of course.
A fire alarm interrupted the second concert - because this pianist's hall was on fire.
It was shortly after 8 p.m. on Monday (March 25, 2024) when Chilly Gonzales cracked the joke on the stage of Munich's Isarphilharmonie that was well received in every city.
The pianist explains to his audience what he plans to do musically and also announces new songs.
They are, so to speak, a wonderfully celebrated art break, a seemingly strenuous search for the correct adjective – “fresh from the oven”.
Laughter in the sold-out hall.
A little more than 90 minutes later, the Canadian will remind his fans of the beginning of the concert.
“When I said oven fresh, I didn’t know how hot the oven was.”
The Isarphilharmonie was sold out twice at Chilly Gonzales
Gonzales already played here with his four-piece band on Sunday - but no one who was there will soon forget the performance on Monday: around 9.30 p.m., as the program is just entering the home straight with a lot of oomph, the fire alarm goes off and a A voice on the tape calls on people to leave the building immediately.
“The wardrobe will be handed out at a later date.” After a moment of irritation, Gonzales, his three colleagues and cellist Stella Le Page also leave the stage.
Most people realized relatively quickly that it had to be a false alarm.
That's why they didn't leave the Gasteig HP8 at all, but instead used the forced break to visit the bar in the foyer: Munich, after all.
The hall remained closed for 20 minutes.
He calls it “Kraut” surfing: Chilly Gonzales in Munich.
© Michael Schleicher
On Tuesday (March 26, 2024), Gasteig spokesman Michael Amtmann reported upon request that false fire alarms had occurred more frequently shortly after the opening of the interim in October 2021.
These are usually triggered by the smoke machine, which is needed so that the lighting atmospheres can be seen from the 1,956 seats.
Several hundred smoke detectors are installed in the building, and during concerts with smoke machines and light shows, all those in critical points are switched off.
Instead, there are “smoke guards” who patrol those areas of the house during a performance to ensure safety.
At Chilly Gonzales, one of the smoke detectors in the roof literally had enough - and automatically caused the hall to be evacuated and the fire department alerted.
“Music is back, motherfuckers!” shouts Chilly Gonzales
With an artist like the Canadian pianist, who moves cleverly and virtuosically between jazz, pop, classical, rap and something that Gonzales himself calls “the Unexpected”, such a forced break can interrupt the good mood, but in no way disturbs it.
“Anything can truly happen,” explains the 52-year-old when his audience is back in the hall at 9:50 p.m.
“There can be an 'uncomfortable silence' twenty minutes after the beginning of a concert.
And then, right when we are all about having a collective orgasm: 'Fire Alarm'.
Deus ex Fuck-ina.
I wanna thank you all for coming back.
You're fucking beautiful, Munich!” A translation of Gonzales' summary of the events does not need to be carried out separately at this point.
But what should definitely be said: The artist, of course also dressed that evening in his classic concert outfit (dressing gown, fine rib shirt, Adilettes) and his combo can no longer hold back in the second part, including “Kraut” surfing over the hands/heads/bodies of the fans.
“Music is back, motherfuckers!” Chilly Gonzales shouts.
Then the next escalation level is triggered.
Chilly Gonzales and Richard Wagner
Chilly Gonzales was in Bayreuth for the first time when she was 16.
The “Ring” made a deep impression on him, he said on Monday in Munich.
During his research into the life and work of Richard Wagner, however, he was horrified
at what a “monster” the composer was
: at the height of his influence, Wagner published the
anti-Semitic pamphlet “Judenthum in Music”
in 1869 , thereby fueling hatred of Jews.
Gonzales, who has lived in Cologne for twelve years, advocates a
clear separation between artist and art
.
That's why the 52-year-old started a petition at www.change.org to rename Richard-Wagner-Straße in his adopted home.
That wouldn't be a cancel culture.
We are not calling for the performance of Wagner's operas to be stopped.
But if a street in downtown Cologne bears the name of an anti-Semite, in my opinion we are honoring an unworthy man.” Gonzales is calling for a
Tina Turner Street instead.
“Who would be better suited for this than an African-American composer and singer who made Cologne her home for nine years?”