That was our tonhalleAIR

For two days, we played at our tonhalleAIR in the Münsterhof, in the most beautiful (and in the afternoon also quite hot) weather. The atmosphere was exactly what we had hoped for: It was relaxed, cheerful and energised - among the musicians and the backstage team as well as the audience in front of the stage and the children in the fountain. Photographer Gaëtan Bally accompanied the event; here we present a lavish selection from his 20,000 (!) photos in five photo series.

The first is of the kick-off on Friday afternoon: around 300 children from Superar Suisse and Zurich school classes sang, played - and encouraged the audience to join in.

While we're on the subject of numbers:

• A total of around 10,000 people listened to the concerts over the two days.
• Among other things, 200 fans and 36 umbrellas were sold at our info point and sales stand, with the latter serving exclusively as parasols.
• 6,200 flyers publicised the event in advance, as well as 200 window banners in trams and buses - and around 45 preliminary reports in various media.
• 164 posts and stories were published on our social media channels.
• the official maximum temperature was32 degrees - it was significantly warmer in the control room and the sales stand.
• 1 presenter accompanied the concert marathon: Sandra Studer, who was as tireless as she was great. Her key sentence: "The ESC was actually just the warm-up for this!"

Unfortunately, the question of how many glitter particles were on pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet's jacket cannot be answered. But one thing is certain: he played Aram Khachaturian's piano concerto on 88 keys in an extremely captivating and, yes, musically sparkling way. Before and after this, Paavo Järvi and the orchestra made Bizet's "Carmen" suite and Kodaly's "Dances from Galánta" shine.

You may have noticed that the chimes of the church bells always fell between the works. That wasn't a coincidence, it was planned - the timing of the music and moderation was precisely aligned. A festival like this also consists of countless logistical, technical, communicative, musical and other details. The team led by Franziska Möhrle (project management), Friedemann Dürrschnabel (orchestral technology) and Michaela Braun (production) had been preparing for this event for around a year in collaboration with external specialists.

The core team was present at the Münsterhof almost around the clock on both days, joined by 24 helpers in three shifts - employees of the Tonhalle-Gesellschaft Zürich, members of klubZ and other volunteers. They sweated it out at the info point, answered questions on the square, supervised admission to the musicians' cloakroom in the Fraumünster, organised the stage performances, supported anyone who needed assistance, tidied up - and toasted the successful event late at night with the remaining beer on the empty square.

On Saturday, it was classic meets jazz! For the very first time, 17 musicians from the Zurich Jazz Orchestra joined forces with just as many colleagues from the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich to form a large big band. Under the direction of Ed Partyka, they played a set arranged by him twice with pieces by George Russell, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington and others.

Hugo Montenegro's opening piece was the programme, so to speak: "Fanfare for the New" was the title, fitting for the new collaboration. The musicians on both sides agreed that this should continue, and the enthusiastic reactions from the audience were unmistakable. Although it was hot, it was also really cool.

There was also another premiere at the end of Saturday evening: for the first time, Paavo Järvi conducted the Zurich Youth Symphony Orchestra, which is otherwise led by our trombonist David Bruchez-Lalli. Here, too, musicians from the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich were on stage - which led to a familiar collaboration: Violist Ursula Sarnthein sat on the same podium as her daughter Clara.

The programme included two repertoire hits, Grieg's "Peer Gynt" Suite No. 1 and Dvořák's Symphony "From the New World", which attracted such a large audience that security had to cordon off the square: more than 3,500 people at a time were not allowed to gather in the Münsterhof for security reasons. So some listened from outside the cordon ..

Small consolation for them: There will be another tonhalleAIR in two years' time. We're already looking forward to it!

We thank ...

TonhalleAIR would not have been possible without the support of our partners. We would like to thank our main partners Fachstelle Kultur Kanton Zürich / Kulturfonds, LGT Private Banking and Merbag; our media partner NZZ; our event partner MCM; our project sponsors Hilti Foundation, Landis & Gyr Foundation and another foundation. The Open Piano is supported by Musikkonservatorium Zürich MKZ, Musik Hug and Zürich Tourism.