The Grafing cultural association has now been in existence for 25 years. His main focus has always been on classical music, his concert hall is located in the Grafingen town hall, and the city makes the space available rent-free. But now the concert series had to evade for the first time, because of Corona, of course, and in the city hall. Friedhelm Haenisch, chairman of the association and former city councilor, tells how the excursion went.
SZ: Mr. Haenisch, in Grafing the debate about cultural areas keeps boiling up. How do you see it
Friedhelm Haenisch: Oh, we are actually very satisfied with the town hall. It has excellent acoustics, especially when it is full, so that the musicians cannot afford inaccuracies. In addition, the room with its cozy atmosphere is wonderfully suitable for chamber music.
Now you had to leave your traditional domicile …
Yes, unfortunately, because under pandemic conditions we are only allowed to let a maximum of 20 listeners into the town hall. That would have been far too little for the “Diogenes Quartet”.
But the hall of the town hall is a completely different caliber. Much larger and, as is often criticized, not optimal in terms of acoustics.
That’s also true. I’ve seen it there before: from the fourth row onwards, you practically can’t hear anything. This stage just swallows everything. It’s a disaster. But my suggestion to buy a shell for the stage acoustics and thus provide a remedy has unfortunately not been heard so far.
Nevertheless, have you now embarked on this change of location?
Yes. It was a tough decision, but in the end we decided to give it a try. And we have adapted the space to our needs: We did not place the musicians on the big stage, but instead set up a second, much lower podium directly in front of it. So the strings sat about half a meter high, the audience right around them. So the sound was wonderful, even the musicians themselves were very impressed by the beautiful reverb in this high room. We hadn’t expected that at all.
And the ambience? The town hall doesn’t look very inviting, especially when it’s half empty …
That wasn’t a problem either: we simply dimmed the lights a lot and only illuminated the stage. So the mood was wonderful.
How much audience did you get?
We had 80 seats and about 65 were occupied. And not only from seniors, even some students from high school were there. So the conclusion is very good – even if many of our regular guests stayed away, probably because they were not comfortable with the new location. That is more than unfortunate.
Do you think there will be another opportunity to hear chamber music in the town hall?
Yes, absolutely. The hall is a real alternative. We are currently planning another concert in November, and the pandemic will certainly not be over by then. In any case, we can be sure of the full support of the city here and there – which we are very happy about.
But after Corona, if we are allowed to experience that, will the cultural association return to the town hall?
Most certainly.