Of
Michael Stallknecht
String quintets by Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms and Brett Dean will be played in the Pierre Boulez Hall in Berlin. Between the usual concert-goers, however, sits a group of test subjects. They wear a belt around their stomach that measures their breathing rate, they have electrodes on their hands that document their skin conductivity, and a clip also records their heart rate. Cameras are set up opposite them, registering every twitch of their facial muscles. Baiba Skride, Gergana Gergova, Micha Afkham, Amihai Grosz and Alban Gerhardt are all masters of their craft in string quintets. Supported by a younger ensemble, they will play the same program a total of nine times in the Berlin Radialsystem, and more test subjects are still welcome. In the end, 1,200 wired listeners should provide a research team of sociologists, musicologists, psychologists and computer scientists with information about what people feel when they hear Beethoven, Brahms or Dean.