I have always been a HUGE fan of Paul Van Dyk and have interviewed him and DJ’ed with him on numerous occasions. He is my favourite elecrtonic dance music producer and incredibly talented.

So it was no surprise when I saw what he did on the 13 February 2009.

I have always said that Trance and Classical music are very similar!

Two world stars came together for the next Music Discovery Project of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra: Berlin producer Paul van Dyk, remixer, world famous DJ and pioneer of electronic music, and Paavo Järvi, one of the greatest conductors of classical music. It took place on 13th February 2009, in Frankfurt’s Jahrhunderthalle, they took us  on an unusual journey through the universe with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and a nine-piece band. Gustav Holst’s powerful orchestral suite, “The Planets,” was performed first in the original and then jointly in a spectacular reinterpretation.

This third edition of the Music Discovery Project of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra saw musical styles from distant worlds colliding with one another whilst being brought together at the same time. Paul van Dyk’s performances are crowd pullers all over the world. He is able to fill stadiums with 40,000 listeners and can transform New York’s Central Park into a unique open air club. He also works as radio presenter and music pro-ducer, has released five studio albums and remixes songs by top international artists including Justin Timberlake, Depeche Mode and U2. In doing so the so-cially and politically dedicated multi-award-winning artist is constantly break-ing new ground and surprising his fans with unusual and interesting projects. The music from Gustav Holst’s The Planets has fascinated famous film direc-tors and rock bands, creative figures and video game authors. Elements of Holst’s musical portrait of the bringer of war, Mars, for example, have been used by Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Frank Zappa and many more. The soundtracks of legendary science fiction films, for example Star Trek IV and Star Wars, also feature themes and rhythms from the suite, as do an-thems and television series (The Simpsons).

The annual Music Discovery Project is a special project of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and its lead conductor Paavo Järvi. The two previous concerts featured techno musician Tom Wax and music producer Mousse T. The musical event was presented and hosted by YOU FM, Hessian Broadcasting’s ra-dio station for young people.

Järvi, who has won two Grammy awards, is one of the world’s most prolific conductors and an expert of many different music styles. He has, for example, also been a drummer in a rock band in his home-land of Estonia. It is important for him to bring classical music to a younger generation: “One way is to develop musical and cultural connections. The music which we see as modern, and here I mean pop, soul up to techno, goes back to the same music on which classical music is based.”

Watch Paul Van Dyk’s performance