The time between the years is over now, but what about the time between the waves? Are we still waiting anxiously for the dangerous surf or is it already rolling? Are there any intermediate times at all? Hasn’t a gently undulating permanent wave dominated for months, which is now transitioning from Delta-Style to Omikron? Whatever you call it, a lot has fallen into the water recently because of the waves. Celebration beasts, champagne and waltz friends were denied to celebrate the turn of the year exuberantly, whether it was the ban on firecrackers, closed clubs or canceled New Year’s Eve concerts.
However, there were a few New Year’s Eve concerts on a smaller scale, and – yes – a number of New Year’s Eve concerts and other events are planned in the Munich district in January, which will welcome 2022 with joy. The Garching Symphony Orchestra will give a New Year’s concert on Sunday, January 9th, in the town’s community center, which in view of the program should leave little to be desired: In addition to works by the usual suspects Strauss, Suppé and Lehar, film music and compositions by Bizet and Elgar will be played. For the amateur orchestra, which from its beginnings in the mid-eighties as a small ensemble of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics has developed into an ambitious ensemble in which members from all over the Munich area take part, it is the first concert since a performance in February 2020, at that time still under the direction of Gabiz Reichert.
The new artistic director Tamara Mersetzky, who also rehearsed the program, should have made her debut on Sunday. However, she recently tested positive for the corona virus and had to be replaced by Philipp Lüdecke – among other things, he is the conductor of the Symphonic Wind Orchestra of the Eichenau Music Association. “Those are the surprise effects,” comments Garching’s cultural advisor Thomas Gotterbarm with slightly resigned irony. “At the moment everything is uncertain.”
The event is going through, at which Garching’s mayor Dieter Gruchmann (SPD) will also give a New Year’s address, but now and the demand is there: “It sells surprisingly well,” says Gotterbarm. At the same time, the concert will also be streamed live. To this end, they have recently set up their own YouTube channel – the access (www.garching.de/kultur/live) is free, but donations for the orchestra are requested. The performance on January 9th starts at 4 p.m. There are still a few tickets that can best be ordered from the cultural department (phone 089/32 08 91 38) or, with a little luck, purchased at the box office.
There will probably be room for between 120 and 150 visitors in the Garching community center under the given conditions – a test station is directly opposite. Gotterbarm, who has already experienced at past events that “the mood didn’t arise”, is at best cautiously optimistic about further planning: “Everything is shaky, you plan a bit into the blind.” As a municipality, one can cope well with the threatened cancellation of various events in view of the swelling wave, but: “It would be bad again for the artists.”
Larger events are at great risk in the coming weeks
While the program has been shut down or canceled at some houses in the district anyway, further January events are planned in Garching and other municipalities such as Unterschleißheim – where there will be a (sold out) New Year’s concert with the Munich Symphony Orchestra on January 6th. This also applies to the community of Taufkirchen. In the culture and congress center there will be various performances from the middle of the month, and on January 29th a New Year’s concert with a local touch is on the program: the long-time director of the Taufkirchen Music School, Claus Blank, will play melodies and waltzes with a salon orchestra Tchaikovsky, Johann Strauss and other masters of ballet and operetta literature will present works by Johannes Brahms. Information and tickets at https://kulturzentrum-taufkirchen.de/home.html.
In Unterföhring in January – if possible – there should also be a proper celebration. The musical “Anatevka” on January 15th is already sold out and so is the “Unterföhringer Lachnacht” on January 21st. There are also two performances by Iwanson International with the program “The Nimble Project” (modern dance) on January 22nd and 23rd. In Unterhaching, however, the dance performance originally scheduled for January 15th by Ballet Classique Munich (“Swan Lake”) has already been postponed. This is generally true: larger events with many active people on stage are uncertain or at great risk in their realization in the coming weeks. In this respect, the New Year brings little that is new.