Yamaha CL5 Makes Outdoor Classical Debut
June saw an event which marked another ‘first’ for Yamaha’s new CL series of digital mixing consoles - the first time one had been used at an outdoor classical concert.
Held in the grounds of the German town of Rheda’s historic castle, the concert was the opening event at the first Ostwestphalen-Lippe Biennial arts festival. Two years in the planning, the concert got the festival off to a perfect start.
Conducted by musical director Alexander Kalajdzic, the Bielefeld Philharmonic Orchestra played a varied selection of music to a capacity audience, including music from 1954 film La Strada and Ottorino Respighi’s symphonic poem The Pines of Rome.
Supplied by MA System, from nearby Hilter am Teutoburger Wald, the Yamaha CL5 made a very positive impression on the concert’s front of house engineer Gerd Drücker.
"The CL5 was excellent. The sound was very high quality, it was crystal clear,” he says. “Using the CL5 was also very fast and intuitive, which is typical of Yamaha digital consoles.”
Opening the show was seven-piece Austrian brass ensemble Mnozil Brass, which plays an esoteric brass and accapella mix of Balkan beats, pop and classical music. Meanwhile, following the opening concert, two further classical shows at the venue also used the CL5 - a 'Last Night of the Proms’ with the Northwest German Philharmonic and an opera gala, with singers accompanied by the orchestra of the Detmold State Theatre.
“The sound quality, flexibility, efficiency and size of the CL5 are all excellent. It is a really positive addition to our rental stock and we look forward to using it on a great variety of shows,” says MA System technical director Ralf Mechelhoff.
“Classical concerts demand the very best sound quality, the engineers have to deal with a huge range of audio frequencies and mix the show very dynamically, to ensure that none of the subtleties of the music are lost while the loud passages don’t overwhelm the audience,” adds Stefan Zeiger, Commercial Audio Product Manager at Yamaha Music Europe GmbH.
“In the challenging environment of an outdoor classical show, the CL5 proved that it was more than capable of delivering a great performance.”
