CinéConcert: Raskolnikow (1923)

The German Expressionist masterpiece Raskolnikow (1923), based on Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, screened on an analog 35mm print and featuring a freshly composed original score performed live by Andy Pavlov.

Raskolnikow (1923), directed by Robert Wiene (best known for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, one of the most iconic works in silent film history) adapts Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment into a visually striking psychological drama in the tradition of German Expressionism. Through stylized sets, distorted perspectives, and stark contrasts between light and shadow, the film renders the inner turmoil of its protagonist: a student who commits murder under the conviction that he is morally exceptional. The result is a suffocating exploration of guilt, alienation, and moral absolutism.

For this screening, composer and pianist Andy Pavlov presents a newly written live score for prepared piano. Rather than illustrating the images, Pavlov approaches the music as an emotional extension of the film’s inner world. Using an acoustic piano, amplified and processed through guitar effect pedals, he creates a sonic landscape that moves between hushed ambient textures and sudden eruptions of tension. The instrument becomes narrator, witness, and counter-voice, melodically and spatially interwoven with Wiene’s expressionist visual language.

Rooted in modern piano minimalism, post-classical sensibilities, and elements of analogue sound experimentation, the composition reclaims the historical tradition of live film accompaniment and reshapes it for a contemporary audience. What once served to fill the silence of early cinema becomes here an autonomous, newly composed score that enters into an active dialogue with the film.

Andrija Pavlović, also known under his alias Andy Pavlov, is a multimedia artist, pianist, and composer. He studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Rostock and earned his PhD at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade with the research project Quantum Music. Pavlov is co-founder of the internationally acclaimed piano duo LP Duo, which has won more than 30 international awards, performed worldwide in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, and Concertgebouw, and released twelve albums. With LP Duo, he initiated the groundbreaking art-and-science project Quantum Music, in collaboration with institutions including University of Oxford and Ars Electronica, and together with engineers and quantum physicists developed the instrument Duality — a portable hybrid piano. His work has been released by, among others, Universal Music Group, Donemus, and Brilliant Classics.