V51

Sunday, 13 March 2011

5 pm, Closing Concert in the Anhaltisches Theater Dessau

„Berlin im Licht“ ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
Lieder and Songs by Weill and Eisler

Conductor und Baritone: HK Gruber
Ensemble Modern


If you want to write about the music of Kurt Weill, it would help to have some experience as an ice skater and to have already mastered the triple Saltow on a highly polished surface. Which is to say that music is much better "explained" using non-verbal means of communication than with mere words. How, for example, should one describe the amazing drive, the phenomenal quality and the sheer fascination of the "small" music piece (lasting 3.21 minutes) which is also the title-song of the 19th Kurt Weill Festival. The only option is to invite all Kurt Weill fans to come to this concert in order to find out for themselves how Ensemble Modern and HK Gruber will interpret the brilliantly catchy "Berlin im Licht".

Regular visitors to the festival should take note that any similarity to the concert which HK Gruber offered together with Ensemble Modern during his residency in 2008 is only to be found in the concert title. The fascinating inner tension – and relaxation – of this year's closing concert can be explained by the juxtaposition of Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler, two of the most important composers of the 20th century. It's a fact of history that Brecht's questionable treatment of Kurt Weill, leading to a rupture of their successful partnership at the same time as Brecht and Eisler drew closer, sewed the seeds of mistrust and animosity against Eisler amongst Weill's supporters. If this attitude at first seems understandable, at that same time the question must be posed whether the animosity at this betrayal might not have been better spent on Brecht rather than Eisler?

Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler both created unforgettable music, and it is right and proper to mention them in the same breath when we speak of unbounded talent, the ability to translate urgent, social-critical messages into musical form, and stupendous skills in composition which are able to dissolve all barriers between artist and listener – a gift sorely lacking in so many 20th century composers. No doubt geniuses will always be rare birds, and yet one wishes that in general the composers of the last century should have shown greater skill in bridging the gap between stage and auditorium. Perhaps contemporary music would not be the niche genre for connoisseurs it has now become. In any case, the closing concert of "BERLIN IM LICHT" will help us to forget that "new music" is something for the elites, robbing us of the fascination of discovering new works. Our grateful thanks go to Kurt Weill!


The Artist-in-Residence will be presented by LOTTO Sachsen-Anhalt

With kind support of the
Stadtsparkasse Dessau


Ticket Prices in €

	Cat.1	conc.	Cat.2	conc.	Cat.3	conc.	Cat.4	conc.
V51	33,00	30,50	26,00	23,50	20,00	17,50	13,00	10,00