Benedikt Hübner

Events:

Born in:

Halle (Saale)

Current centre of life:

Dresden

Instrument:

Double bass

My career aspiration as a child:

Various

This was the profession my parents envisioned for me:

Probably musician

Works or concert experiences that shaped me:

Rousing baroque music with Il Giardino Armonico. Elgar’s Cello Concerto with Truls Mørk.

Work with the greatest music-making pleasure (and why?):

Mostly what I’m playing at the moment.

I would like a work for my instrument by this composer (and why?):

By Joseph Haydn – he had even composed a double bass concerto! But unfortunately it is lost. There are some original double bass concertos of the Viennese classical period. To find Haydn’s (again) would be great!

I would get up in the middle of the night for that:

For our 3 small children.

Special / curious own concert experience:

At the opening concert of a new concert season of the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, we played one of the almost 90-minute Mahler symphonies, our mid-70-year-old chief conductor held a fermata in the slow 3rd movement for a particularly long time, handed over the baton to the concertmaster and left the stage. We played on, many colleagues very worried about our chief conductor. The concertmaster now continued to conduct: the baton in his right hand – the violin still on his left. He dived down briefly, put his violin on the floor, stood up again and looked for the right page in the score, because the score had not been turned for a long time. While the tempo of the slow movement was now involuntarily getting slower and slower, some musicians called out into the music at which point we were playing. After some time, the chief conductor returned to the stage. After the concert there was the reception for the opening of the season, politicians and the press were also there. Everyone wondered what was going on, of course. The chief conductor gave a short speech and said: “It was a human need. I had been thinking all along what would be worse!” The next day, the tabloids ran the headline: ‘In Concert: Conductor Fled to the Bathroom!

My most valuable tip for the next generation of musicians:

Music becomes exciting when we really express something, create moods, tell stories, and create special moments – it is not the purpose of music to ‘deliver’ it flawlessly. Gustav Mahler said: “The best of music is not in the notes”.

That's what I wish for the future of the classical music scene:

That after Corona live concerts are valued even more.

My next project:

Concerts with the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra.

That's what I associate with Leipzig as a city of music:

My musical roots lie in Leipzig. I was particularly influenced by my first double bass teacher. I also associate Leipzig with Bach, the Bach Festival, the Gewandhaus and many innovative music formats.