A Youth Orchestra in Harmony
The film «Unisono» profiles the Aargau Youth Symphony Orchestra. Anyone who sees it will want to be a part of it themselves.
There’s the aspiring professional flutist who’s already dreaming of Vienna, Berlin, and Paris («That’s where the gods are!»). The young violinist who’s happy as an amateur musician with her «super-awesome hobby.» The high school student who might want to study violin, or maybe composition—in any case, «something to do with music.» In the Aargau Youth Symphony Orchestra, such differences don’t matter, as Georges Gachot’s new film impressively shows. Unisono - From the love of music is the title of the one-and-a-half-hour documentary that Gachot produced in the summer of 2020. For one week, the director—now 63 years old, who in his younger years portrayed celebrities such as Martha Argerich and Beat Richner—followed the orchestra’s workshop in Boswil.
From the very first moment, the professionalism and dedication with which the young musicians approach their work are captivating. It is they—and their enthusiastic remarks about music and their work in the orchestra—that Gachot focuses on throughout the entire first half of the film. Even the conductor and artistic director, Hugo Bollschweiler, with his reserved demeanor, comes across as a primus inter pares.
And suddenly, the charismatic soloist appears
The second half of the film marks a turning point in that it introduces the soloist Iiro Rantala: a charismatic artist with immense pianistic skill and decidedly provocative views (Bach’s Goldberg Variations? All improvised and «kindly» written down for us by the composer.) Rantala’s jazz-influenced compositions were part of the challenging program the orchestra worked on that summer. Rantala’s improvisational interludes in spontaneous duets with volunteers from the orchestra are among the most memorable moments in the film.
This film, in turn, largely avoids «private» scenes involving the group of teenagers at camp. Interpersonal tensions—which would, after all, be conceivable in such a setting—are also not an issue: Everything seems, quite literally, in harmony, Unisono - From the love of music takes its title very seriously. For the audience, this means that you’ll want to hear the Aargau Youth Symphony Orchestra perform live. But it also—and perhaps even more so—makes you wish you could be a part of it yourself.
Unisono – A Love of Music. Directed by Georges Gachot. Distributed by Gachot-Films. In theaters starting August 27, 2026.
