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Writer's pictureNiklaus Vogel

Creation of the music video "The Steppenwolf"

Updated: Dec 23, 2021

The music video will be premiered on youtube on december the 28th!


In 2019, Helen Steinemann and Regula Dodds commissioned composer Niklaus Vogel to compose a duo for two violins for their concert entitled "à la Mozart".



The resulting work "Steppenwolf" was premiered on October 19, 2019 in Ebikon and has already been performed several times in public including at the Lunch- Fyrabigkonzert of the Zug Sinfonietta in Zug and in Rotkreuz in the fall of 2019. The work, inspired by Hermann Hesse's "Steppenwolf", was received with great enthusiasm by the audience. The piece lasts around 11 min. As it is extremely pictorial, emotionally charged, creative and musically multifaceted, Helen Steinemann and Regula Dodds have decided to develop the project further. In July 2020, the two violinists recorded the work as the basis for the music video.


The concept and script for the film came from composer Niklaus Vogel himself, who enlisted the help of filmmaker and musician Andreas Graf. The location for the shooting was the Schweizerhof Lucerne and the Engadin with its contrasting and mystical scenery, the lovely Silsersee, the wide plains and the rough high mountains.




The music video will be premiered on youtube on december the 28th!


Concept

The concept is based entirely on the ideas and inspirations from the novel of the same name by Hermann Hesse, which contributed to the creation of the music. In addition to the music, the deliberately chosen scenery of the Engadine around Sils Maria, where Hesse spent many summers, plays a decisive role.

The music leads the two protagonists on a mystically fantastic journey into their inner lives. Behind the bourgeois facade of culture and elitist conceit, a mystically archaic world opens up to them, reflected by the beauty and wild ruggedness of nature. Here they also come into contact with a shadowy figure. Ultimately their own shadow. Wit and madness alternate from grotesquely lovely to destructive at times and finally condense into an ever faster spinning merry-go-round. The question remains until the end whether the demons can be dissolved or not. The concert ends; the two musicians purified by their journey.

Next to the shadowy figure, the lake acts as a symbol for the soul and at the same time as a deceptive idyll from which one can't seem to get away. The island serves as an allusion to the "Isle of the Dead" and the concert hall with the Hotel Waldhaus stands as a bourgeois institution from which a path is revealed to the violinists through the music into their abysses and back again.


Impressions

Luckily we had an excellent location scout in Helen Steinemann-Müller, who was able to present us with a wonderful selection of photos in advance and on the basis of which an appropriate shooting plan could be drawn up. The shooting started early in the morning in the cold on the Silsersee. Here are a few impressions from the set in Engadin. Enjoy! : )


The music video will be premiered on youtube on december the 28th!





Contributors


direction, concept, production: Niklaus Vogel, Epic Lab

composition: Niklaus Vogel

violin: Regula Dodds

violin: Helen Steinemann-Müller

Audio recording: Niklaus Vogel

Audio mix and mastering: Niklaus Vogel

Camera: Andreas Graf, Tae Peter, Betram Baumgarten

Drone pilot: Tae Peter

Editing: Andreas Graf and Niklaus Vogel, Epic Lab

Color Correction: Andreas Graf

Art Department: Corinne Vogel

Location Scout: Helen Steinemann-Müller, Niklaus Vogel


Helen Steinemann - Violin

Helen Steinemann grew up in Baar in the canton of Zug. She completed both her teaching and concert diplomas at the Lucerne Conservatory with Daniel Dodds and Edith Peinemann with distinction. Helen Steinemann attended master classes and seminars with Kristof Wegrzyn (Hanover) and Rudolph Baumgartner. In 1998 she was awarded the Dr. Walter Strebi Prize, in 2000 the Promotion Prize of the Kiefer Hablitzel Foundation, as well as the Promotion Prize of the Canton of Zug. From 1998 to 2004 she was a member of the Festival Strings Lucerne. This was followed by tours and concerts in Europe, Japan, South America, South Africa as well as CD productions. Helen Steinemann is a founding member of the Zug Sinfonietta and regularly plays in various chamber music ensembles. She has been teaching at the Zug Municipal Music School since 2003.


Regula Dodds - Violin

Regula Dodds grew up in Baar (ZG) and received her first violin lessons at the age of five at the Zug Music School. At the Lucerne Conservatory she obtained her teaching diploma "with distinction" under Daniel Dodds. She then studied in the class of Professor Sebastian Hamann and completed her studies in 2007 with the concert-ready exam. Master classes with Peter Zazofsky (Boston), Prof. Adelina Oprean (Basel) and Isabel Charisius (Alban Berg Quartet) as well as numerous chamber music courses with Prof. Sebastian Hamann gave essential impulses to her creative work.

Regula Dodds received the Axelle and Max Koch Cultural Foundation Recognition Prize, the Walter and Maria Strebi Prize and the Canton of Zug Promotion Prize. She is a member of the world-renowned chamber orchestra Festival Strings Lucerne, the Zug Sinfonietta and plays in various chamber music formations. Regula Dodds teaches a violin class at the Hünenberg Music School.


Andreas Graf, film director & creative director

Andreas Graf was born in Basel, Switzerland. He received his training at the New York Film Academy and holds a master’s degree in business and media from the university of Bern, Switzerland.

His short film “The Laws of Attraction”, starring Aaron Kuban, has won several awards and was accepted for competition at international film festivals. He has produced and directed short films in England, Spain and the USA. He lived in Los Angeles where he produced film content for start-up companies in the cleantech business and interviewed meterologists and NASA scientists about sustainability, climate change und earth science.

Andreas is also a multiple awarded classical concert cellist. He holds a master’s degree in performing arts from Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main, and is a member of the Bern Symphony Orchestra.


The music video will be premiered on youtube on december the 28th!






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3 Comments


Niklaus Vogel
Niklaus Vogel
Dec 28, 2021

Thanks for everyone who joined the premiere!

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Niklaus Vogel
Niklaus Vogel
Dec 25, 2021
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Niklaus Vogel
Niklaus Vogel
Dec 24, 2021

Comment also if you just want to say hi : )

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