Stockhausen: Quatuor à cordes Helikopter

Stockhausen: Quatuor à cordes Helikopter

A film by Frank Scheffer

The film on Karlheinz Stockhausen's “Helikopter-Streichquartett” captures for the viewer a musical event that did not at all seem to be composed for being captured or replayed at all: four string players in four different helicopters! The Helicopter String Quartet is one of the most controversial works of art produced in recent years. Composed for the Arditti Quartet and premiered at the 1995 Holland Festival, it involves the four members of a string quartet playing in four different helicopters flying through the air. The music the quartet plays is then sent to a central space and mixed at a soundboard. In his film, Frank Scheffer documents the complex preparations in the month leading up to the premiere of this work, as well as eliciting insights from the composer regarding how he conceived and executed it. Scheffer goes behind the scenes and, stage by stage, shows the enormous production needed to realize “Helicopter String Quartet”. Stockhausen holds numerous rehearsals with the Arditti Quartet, coaching them on every possible performance detail. He personally handles all the matters of sound himself, even down to the final mixing at the concert. From a camera positioned inside a fifth helicopter, we see the string quartet flying in the skies above Amsterdam in a peaceful moment of almost unnerving freedom and release.