trip to Asia

From all over the world they have come to join a 125 year-old tradition of excellence. They have fought their way to the very heights of their profession, masters of their craft, second to none. They are individuals each with different paths, different histories, united in their singular passion: musical perfection. On a journey to the farthest reaches of Asia, they will come together to create an experience, live, on-stage, for sold out audiences who have come to bear witness to this tradition, to share one moment between two cultures, and bridge the gap between East and West through a universal language.

Award winning director THOMAS GRUBE (RHYTHM IS IT!) and his distinguished film crew will take you on a motion picture journey with the musicians of the BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER and their conductor SIR SIMON RATTLE as they set off on a breakneck concert tour of six of the most dynamic, pulsating and electrifying metropolises across Asia: Beijing, Seoul, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei and Tokyo. Featuring the inspired and timeless music of Thomas Adès‘ 'Asyla', Beethoven‘s 'Eroica' and Richard Strauss‘ 'A Hero‘s Life' ('Ein Heldenleben'), TRIP TO ASIA will leave audiences breathless and applauding for more!

Journey on a tour with the orchestra that witnesses first hand the cultural reawakening of a constantly evolving, newly modernized Asia through the inquisitive lens of cameramen Anthony Dod Mantle (Festen, 28 Days Later, Dogville, Manderlay, Last King Of Scotland), Alberto Venzago (Robert Capa Award winner) and René Dame (Rhythm Is It!). Savor the music of a dramatic and innovative score using the real-life sounds of the cities on the tour, masterfully recorded on location by acclaimed composer and sound artist Simon Stockhausen: SOUNDS OF ASIA, the film’s illuminating and breakthrough score fuses visceral audio from the trip and the Philharmonic‘s music into a single, mesmerizing whole.

ONE GROUP. ONE VISION. ONE MISSION

126 musicians, all masters of their craft, each with their own unique personalities have come together to channel their individual skills and harness their virtuosity – on a single mission of creating the celebrated Orchestra‘s distinctive sound. But their artistic triumph onstage belies a dynamic and dramatic life backstage: The Berlin Philharmonic is a closed society that observes its own laws and traditions, and in the words of one of its musicians is, “an island, a democratic microcosm – almost without precedent in the music world - whose social structure and cohesion is not only founded on a common love for music but also informed by competition, compulsion and the pressure to perform to a high pitch of excellence... .”

INSIDE THE HEART AND MIND OF A MASTER

The musicians themselves are at the creative heart of TRIP TO ASIA. These highly skilled performers are presented not only as complex individuals and artistic personalities, but also as integral parts of an influential and creative collective, whose guarded and hidden inner life is illuminated through the spirited mosaic assembled by THOMAS GRUBE. Never before has the Orchestra allowed such intimate and exclusive access into its private world, an opportunity not to be missed!

PUSHED TO THE LIMITS

In the midst of the vibrant urban jungles of Asia, on an extended journey far from home, caught between duty, passion, and fatigue, the complex and conflicted characters that make up the orchestra reveal disparate motivations and temperaments which must all be pushed aside to live, work, and create together. Though their differences outweigh their similarities, the private and confidential experience that unites these artists is their passion for music, the virtuosity of artistic interpretation, and the ritual of performance.

A SYMPHONY OF CINEMATIC IMAGINATION!

TRIP TO ASIA relates the eternal struggle between ego and community, the age-old and daunting quest for harmony with oneself and one‘s neighbours. A deeply personal musical excursion into the overlapping borderlands of melancholy, enthusiasm, loneliness and yearning, an adventure that uses fascinating images and intoxicating sound to distill a universal story of humankind and society into a breathtaking and truly satisfying cinematic experience.