One Day in Life

In twenty-four hours, Daniel Libeskind and the Alte Oper Frankfurt staged seventy-five concerts across Frankfurt as part of an exciting music project, “One Day in Life.” But to understand “One Day in Life,” you have to think beyond the average symphony center or opera house, with rows upon rows of red-backed seats and acoustic ceiling panels. The idea behind “One Day” was to make all of Frankfurt echo with the sound of music, from Indian raga in an operating room to Mozart’s Requiem in a subway station and Handel’s Water Music at a municipal swimming pool.

One Day in Life is the beautifully produced accompanying volume, featuring powerful photographs, short writings, and a complete listing of locations and performances, which included prestigious artists and ensembles like pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, violinist Carolin Widmann, and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and locations like the German National Library’s underground stacks, the former great kitchen of the Römer, and the thirty-eighth floor of the Opera Tower. To add a physical dimension to the project, Libeskind collaborated with the Spanish surface specialist Cosentino on “Musical Labyrinth,” an installation in Frankfurt’s Opera Square, which reproduced the original concept sketch showing the locations of the venues where concerts were to be held. A must-have for all interested in music and architecture, One Day in Life brings together everything you could want to know about this unusual project.