Clemens Porikys.
Max Richter was on tour in the United States when Berlin’s Reethaus filled with champagne and music on the evening of June 22. His absence was, in a way, appropriate. The three compositions he created for Maison Krug were never intended to accompany the experience so much as to inhabit it, and on the banks of the Spree, inside a reed-clad sanctuary designed by Austrian architect Monika Gogl as a space for contemplation and artistic exchange, they did exactly that.
Krug and Richter’s collaboration, ‘Every Note Counts,’ presents a deceptively simple premise: two disciplines and two practitioners united by a shared conviction that the most generous creative work is never improvised. Krug Cellar Master Julie Cavil first welcomed Richter to Reims and to the walled vineyards of Ambonnay, where he wandered the plots, joined the Krug tasting committee and began to understand how a champagne is built from the individual voices of hundreds of different parcels. Then Cavil made the reciprocal journey to Richter’s studio in the Oxfordshire woods. “By immersing ourselves in each other’s worlds and exchanging ideas, sensations and perceptions, we developed a deeper appreciation of one another’s craft,” she says. “Our goal was the same as in blending: to reach a balance that feels inevitable, when nothing more can be added or taken away.”
Clemens Porikys.
Clemens Porikys.
The vintage at the centre of all this is 2008, a year Cavil describes as classical with a twist. Cool conditions and measured ripening produced wines of elegance, verticality and subtle austerity, and from around 250 individual plot wines plus 150 reserve wines from previous years, three distinct champagnes emerged. “In 2008, everything aligned perfectly, allowing us to express three different champagnes that together embody the very philosophy of the Maison,” she says.
Richter responded to each one in musical terms. Krug Clos d’Ambonnay 2008, a singular expression of Pinot Noir from a tiny 0.68-hectare walled plot in the heart of Ambonnay, became ‘Clarity’ – a soloist piece. Krug 2008, with its paradoxical harmony of contrasting flavours, became ‘Ensemble,’ a chamber composition allowing multiple voices to interact. Meanwhile, Krug Grande Cuvée 164ème Édition, a blend of 127 plot wines from eleven different years spanning 1990 to 2008, became ‘Sinfonia.’ “Clarity is a solo voice, a solitary line where every nuance is exposed and carries meaning,” Richter explains. “Ensemble is a slightly expanded chamber group and widens the frame, creating a more intricate dialogue. Sinfonia is the full orchestra, like painting with a larger brush on a bigger canvas.”
Clemens Porikys.
Clemens Porikys.
At the Berlin unveiling, Cavil hosted a gathering of actors, designers and creatives including Vladimir Burlakov, Max von der Groeben, Janina Uhse, Susanne Wuest, Werner Aisslinger, Anna Seidel and Friederike Schilbach, among others. The Reethaus, part of the Flussbad creative campus on the river Spree, was a considered choice for the occasion: a building that brings together craftsmanship, cultural heritage and acoustic innovation, which is not a bad description of the collaboration itself.
The documentary and all three musical pieces are available now online. Find out more here.
photography. courtesy of Clemens Porikys
words. Gennaro Costanzo
