2011/12 season

Music section

Zoom image

Carolin Sturm | Music section

“The oud is the most beautiful and important instrument in the Middle East. It is the most beloved and shared instrument for Arabs and Jews. With the oud, as in the desert, time resonates in its own unique, boundless form, a type of Taqsim. Peace, too, takes its time.” Yair Dalal

The most important music project in the 2011/12 season on the theme of Knowledge and Belief is undoubtedly Israel in Egypt. Based on George Frederick Handel’s famous oratorio, it takes the example of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt to illustrate a fundamental human story and promote a vision of respect and peaceful co-existence of all peoples, irrespective of culture or religion.

This elaborate concert is a coproduction between Bayer Arts & Culture, l’arte del mondo under Werner Ehrhardt, the International Handel Festival Halle and the Israel Festival in Jerusalem. Also taking part are the Tölzer Knabenchor (boys’ choir) and the Israeli oud player and violinist Yair Dalal, who rose to international fame when he played at the ceremony at which Simon Peres and Yassir Arafat were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. His ensemble includes a Jewish cantor and a group of Arab/Muslim musicians, echoing the theme of this highly ambitious project – the promotion of understanding between different cultures.

We open the new season with music that is firmly grounded in Christianity. In the programme for the festive opening, knowledge and belief combine to create what could be called “certainty” – and not just in a religious sense. The cantata Mein Herz schwimmt in Blut by Christoph Graupner, a contemporary of Johann Sebastian Bach’s, deals with precisely this theme – the progression from darkness and sin to a joyful heart. The soprano Katja Stuber and l’arte del mondo under Werner Ehrhardt will perform this unknown cantata in addition to well-known works by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Given this season’s theme, it is only natural that faith and belief should play an important role in many of our other concerts, too, and that the name Johann Sebastian Bach should crop up frequently in the programmes. However, it is often less familiar works that are featured, such as Wilhelm Kempff’s piano arrangements of well-known Bach compositions, which Hardy Rittner will play in his recital. Incidentally, this year’s series of piano recitals, to which we have invited some of the most exciting up-and-coming pianists, includes a number of works by Franz Liszt, the 200th anniversary of whose birth is being celebrated in 2011.

Zoom image

How does one express “knowledge” in the language of music? In literature, film, theatre or the visual arts, it is no problem. But the concept of (factual) knowledge is often at odds with the aesthetic quality of music, regardless of whether we are talking about absolute music in the sense of a progression of notes with no specific “meaning” or music with an explicitly narrative content.

And so we have to answer the question of knowledge in music in terms of music theory. On what rules is it based? In addition to Bach and Liszt, the third focus of this season’s music programme is therefore on compositions by the Second Viennese School (Arnold Schönberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern) and on music from the second half of the 20th century (Sofia Gubaidulina, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Heinz Holliger).

Once again, our stART protégés have come up with some really exciting programmes. In a symphony concert with the Jenaer Philharmonie, Hardy Rittner will play the notoriously difficult Piano Concerto op. 42 by Arnold Schönberg and, by way of contrast, Sofia Gubaidulina’s Concordanza, while in his piano recital he will give the audience the opportunity to draw a direct comparison between Johann Sebastian Bach and Arnold Schönberg. The Signum Quartet contrasts Schubert’s Death and the Maiden with Anton Webern’s Six Bagatelles for String Quartet op. 9.

A further highlight will be the premiere in the Bayer Kulturhaus of a Franz Kafka project involving the Signum Quartet and the prodigious actor and singer Dominique Horwitz, who together will present an exclusive evening of recitations accompanied by music from the 20th century. Each of the other concerts in our Pasticcio series likewise embodies a distinctive concept: Julia Kleiter and Christoph Prégardien will perform both sacred and secular lieder by Hugo Wolf, l’arte del mondo will present Pasquale Anfossi’s unknown opera La finta giardiniera as the second in our series of Operas from the World Archives, and Ute Lemper will sing songs, chansons and lieder by Kurt Weill, Edith Piaf, Jacques Brel and Astor Piazzolla. A wealth of other first-class ensembles, soloists and conductors are also lined up to delight our audiences with programmes that are distinctly out of the ordinary.

Jazz is now a firmly established part of our season. The concerts for children and young people are particularly close to our hearts at Bayer Arts & Culture, and the involvement of our stART artists and l’arte del mondo in our educational HandsOn! projects gives these a very individual touch.

All in all, we can look forward to a music season full of highlights, with numerous up-and-coming artists and a multitude of top-notch international stars.