Paul Rissmann
composer - presenter - animateur
Exploring music live in concert
“It’s not often that you get to clap your hands, slap your thighs and jangle your car keys in a classical concert - certainly not at the same time! But that was presenter Paul Rissmann’s ingenious solution to explaining Stravinsky’s notoriously tricky rhythms in The Firebird. Even better, it worked.... Rissmann’s insights were spot-on, and pitched at just the right level for an audience that gratifyingly mixed newcomers with aficionados.”
In 2007, Paul created Naked Classics which he performed with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. It was an ambitious new concert series which set out to explore classical music in a fresh and totally accessible format. Naked Classics took some of the greatest works in the orchestra’s repertoire and transformed them into a highly approachable, yet sophisticated concert experience.
Since then, Paul has performed music-discovery concerts for adults with orchestras throughout the UK, including the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He has worked with conductors such as Stéphane Denève, Edward Gardner, Valery Gergiev, Andris Nelsons, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Thømas Sondergård.
In the first half of each concert, Paul examines a single work, guiding the audience with a presentation that not only explores the historical background of the music, but also investigates its construction. Using digital projection, live musical excerpts performed by the orchestra and interviews with the performers on stage, Paul delves into the music uncovering secrets in the score and deconstructing the composition.
In the second half of the concert, the audience experience a complete performance of the music.
“Even by the virtuoso standards he has established over the years, presenter extraordinaire Paul Rissmann excelled himself in Saturday night’s tour de force analysis and presentation of the most fundamental repertoire of all, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
Rissmann’s fearless presentation of the symphony, with every detail of the music, its unifying elements in harmony, rhythm and melody, was a masterpiece of communication.
He even tackled head-on the structure of the music, explaining in detail the complexities of Sonata Form, which seemd a bit close to the technical edge, until he explained, with his magical computer graphics, and to outright hilarity in the audience, that “every episode of Fawlty Towers was in Sonata Form”.
It was an absolutely cracking night, with perceived barriers tumbling all around, and the highest and meatiest of high art being blessed with a common touch and available to Everyman. It was a huge public success.”