“together, gathered, energetic, intimate, I have not seen a artist. I understand quite well, such as the must against the world wunderlich stand,“ writes Johann Wolfgang von Goethe about his encounter with Ludwig van Beethoven in the summer of the year 1812 in the North Bohemian Teplice. This quote encouraged, the artistic Director of the Chamber music festival, house, Nicolas Altstaedt, the 39-curls.Edition, the Motto “… intimate …” prepended, to pay tribute to all the honoree is determined, the reverence, but also to investigate the question of how much intimacy, and vigilance in each and every of us are stuck. At the programme launch in December, the German-French Cellist could not imagine how the current slogan in the light of global cultural standstill should be.
Even more gratifying is that the chamber can take place music festival in the Burgenland, market town shortly before the Hungarian border is the first bigger Festival in Austria, albeit under changed conditions: Of the 450 seats, the Baroque parish Church of only 174 may be occupied. A little hallig Islands acoustics is the result. For the visiting musicians, who will not receive a salary, with Board and lodging paid, this is irrelevant. It offers easy to play after many weeks of Isolation for the first Time together. The longing was apparently so big that he knocked her down of the advertised program of the opening concert, in the short term: Instead of Bach’s six suites for Violoncello solo, there was Beethoven’s cello Sonata in D major, op. 102 No. 2, Debussy’s Sonata for Cello and piano in d minor and Brahms’ piano Quartet in A major, op. 26.
While Vilde Frang, Barnabás Kelemen, Katalin Kokas (all violin) and Alexander Lonquich (piano) for quite some time to lure Hauser music family, the young British violist Timothy Ridout for the first Time. “It is a great honor for me to be here. Being surrounded by so many fantastic colleagues and friends means the world to me in the current Situation much. I enjoy every Moment of the wonderful atmosphere, the Music playing and the warmth with which I was welcomed.“ This joy can be heard in Luciano Berio’s “Naturale”.
The composer has personally taken in the Sicilian Palermo so – called “Abbagnate” – typical musical exclamations of fish and fruit dealers, and with avant-garde percussion sounds, as well as adapted a Sicilian folk songs combined, the Ridout with great passion and joy of playing time, such as guitar chords, plucks, or to fiddling empty drone strings. He is accompanied by John Fischer, who demonstrated not only in his “study for electrified table,” but also in the improvised live music for the silent film “Dr. Mabuse, the player” by Fritz Lang (1922) with his ingenious discovery of sounds and noise is impressive.
Idyll with gun-shots
Berio’s Sicilian Idyll, the leaves with marching sounds, gun shots and Church bells at the end of the listener with a certain degree of disturbance, is one of the few pieces that remained of the original plan left. Because in Lockenhaus, it is concept to have a pre-rigidly fixed program, but to present in a relaxed mood, and various Ad hoc constellations, depending on mood, unusual and unique programs. Where else could you listen to such different genres such as song, piano trio, solo piano to four hands and a piece for Viola, percussion and tape in a concert? What will ultimately be played, we learn only shortly before the concert.
Lockenhaus, this is also a mixture of discoveries, experiments, promotion of young talents, creation of artistic partnerships and lifelong friendships. The festival program spans a big arc of Leclair to Bartók and Copland to the vineyard, from Schumann to Zimmermann. Repertoire classics and rarely performed works in a model relationship. Not always the high artistic level can be maintained by. So it would be Easy to criticise the freshly tested Vienna chamber choir, conducted by Michael Grohotolsky the intonation fragile choral sound. But the ambitious program of shows with works by Mahler, Reger, Poulenc, and Schubert quite the artistic strength of the Choir, the corona due to the much had to to be long broke.
