Musician, painter, teacher, and filmmaker, Hugo Max, is currently touring the UK on his Silent Cinema Tour 2024. Hugo takes the stage at various venues to play improvised scores to classic silent horror and thriller films on his viola, creating unique, one-off shows for every audience.
Hugo will be playing live to an array of films. These include German horror Der Golem, British thriller The Lodger, and German expressionist Nosferatu. On November 2, he will be concluding his tour by performing to Nosferatu at Bo’ness’ Hippodrome Cinema.
Brig sat down with Hugo to discuss his current tour.
“Every time you return to it, it always asks new questions”
Passionate and excited to be talking about his music and the tour itself, Hugo was eager to give us all the details.
He started by telling us about his favourite show so far.
“I only had one show with The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari as a part of this tour and […] every time I watch it feels like the first time I’m seeing it again.
“It’s this incredibly oblique allegorical narrative about the way in which young men were sent off to kill and be killed in the First World War. Every time you return to it, it always asks new questions.”
Hugo described this film as “a wonderful meshing together of different mediums”. He talked about how it compares to Nosferatu, his most-played film of this tour.
“It’s a very different film [thematically] to Nosferatu”, he said. “But, I think they were very much born out of similar concerns, particularly in Germany at that time. As a musician, that’s a lot of influence and inspiration on how I approach scoring it.”
Of course, we were eager to hear why Nosferatu will be the main film on this tour. Hugo has a history with the film, Nosferatu was the film he started this journey with. Hugo talks fondly about his work with silent film so far. He added: “this tour feels like a culmination of the first stage of my engagement with silent film”.
“I don’t really want to say ‘this is what the film is about’”
While researching his family history Hugo decided that he wanted to include his Austrian-Jewish ancestry into the conversation of his critical approach to films.
“I try to ask questions critically about the context of these works through musical reference to composers such as Arnold Shawnberg, and to classical music as well – the solo strings sound is so important to classical music.
“With Nosferatu that’s when I started asking these questions. It’s lovely to be able to perform it in lots of different spaces not with the intention that every performance is the same. Each can be its own event for that audience, it can ask particular questions which aren’t enforced in the film. I don’t want to say ‘this is what the film is about’ with the music but rather use each opportunity as an improvisation to say ‘this is what the film could be about’.”
“It gives the films new life and new interest.”
Hugo continues on the line of improvisation as we asked him why he chose to improvise instead of planning scores.
“While I am interested in recording scores for new restorations, […] what’s most important about giving music to these [silent] films is that it makes them more accessible for contemporary audiences. It gives the films new life and new interest.
“It bridges the audience of both mediums [film and music mediums], but again, it’s this feeling of not wanting to prescribe anything concrete on to the films. Some of these films had scores written for them, for orchestra, for organ, [but] some of these films didn’t have a score attributed and particularly with them I don’t want to say ‘this is what the music has to be’.”
He continued, reflecting on his early days of improvising and why he was drawn to it in the first place.
“I started properly exploring improvisation on the viola in the pandemic as a way to recapture the precariousness of live performance, of that feeling that every moment is special and that something new can happen because there were all of these recorded performances and it wasn’t the same.”
“It’s something very meaningful and exciting”
Of course, we had to ask how he was feeling about his trip to Scotland. Hugo spoke about this tour date enthusiastically, speaking about his love for Scotland.
“I’m really excited to be coming to Bo’ness to perform.
“It’s my furthest show north. I’m really excited to be back in Scotland as it’s been a year or so and I love it. It’s wonderful to be building relationships with venues and audiences beyond where I began in London.”
He also mentioned the history of the Hippodrome, a fun fact that I am ashamed to admit I never knew. The Hippodrome at Bo’ness is the oldest purpose-built picture house in Scotland, a fact that Hugo was interested to share.
“Local communities have worked really hard to keep these places afloat and alive, and so to give something back to those communities as a kind of transportive experience back to the dawn of cinema but also something new, for me it’s something very meaningful and exciting,” he admired.
Speaking to Hugo, even for as little as 20 minutes, it was clear how much love he has poured into this tour and his work overall. So, if you want to see a passionate, unique, one-time-only show with his live improvisation, you can find tickets here.
To discover more about Hugo himself, his website can be found here.
Featured Image Credit: Hugo Max