KARL AMADEUS HARTMANN – CENTER

With our programme we would like to begin by drawing a bow to the beginnings of the musica viva founded in 1945 by Karl Amadeus Hartmann. With solo works by Pierre Boulez and György Ligeti, two compositions by Hartmann’s closest companions and most incisive figures in 20th century music history form a programmatic bracket around Hartmann’s early First suite for piano. In 1945 the then twenty-year-old Boulez composed his Douze Notations: twelve pieces in twelve bars of twelve notes. More than thirty years later, it was precisely these miniatures that were to serve him as the germ cell for his epoch-making orchestral work of the same name. Aphoristic brevity, unmistakably expressionistic sound intensity and a rigorous serial approach to compositional technique are the defining characteristics that make this work the aesthetic manifesto of the young Pierre Boulez.
Before György Ligeti fled Hungary to the West in 1956 for political and artistic reasons, he composed a whole series of early works in succession to Béla Bartók; among them is the solo sonata for cello, written between 1948 and 1953. Although her two movements still reveal Bartók’s folkloristically influenced “folk tone”, the committee of the Communist Union of Composers considered the work “too modern” and banned its performance.
After Pierre Boulez, Philippe Manoury is probably the figurehead of the French avant-garde par excellence. In recent years, the question of the various forms of musical interaction has increasingly moved into the focus of his work and his writings on music theory. This moment also characterizes his work Ultima, in which new possibilities of playing together among “free” individuals are tested: “This voluntary independence in the behavior of the three instruments was suggested to me by the heterogeneity of their respective natures,” says the composer in the preface to his score.
Finally, our ensemble hartmann21 will adress itself to a new work by the 29-year-old Mexican composer Carlos G. Hernández, who will also enrich our subsequent round of discussions. Similar to Philippe Manoury, in his work 5(233n, Hernández deals with the theme of communication or isolation between individuals in the age of digital media and transfers this to the interaction of the instrumental voices.

An event of the © Karl Amadeus Hartmann-Gesellschaft e. V., sponsored by Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst, Kulturreferat der Landeshauptstadt München, LfA Förderbank Bayern and Bezirk Oberbayern.

Constantly striving to set new impulses in the examination of Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s œuvre and – in keeping with his spirit – to promote young composers, we were able to offer the Karl Amadeus Hartmann Composition Prize for the first time this year. In order to achieve a higher programmatic density, not only instrumental and temporal, but above all content-related conditions were attached to the call for proposals. Thus the composition to be premiered enters into a stringent connection of the greatest possible coherence with the framework of the evening. We are very pleased to introduce you to the new prize winner Jingyu Jang and to premiere the awarded work “Omega”.
Besides him, the second composer of the evening – José María Sánchez-Verdú, one of the most renowned composers of our days – will also be present and enrich our composer’s discussion. “Born in the extreme south of Spain (Al-Andaluz), the history, literature, mysticism and music of this territory fascinate me. The Mediterranean (Mare nostrum) as a space of encounters, movements, searches, exchanges, cultures and religions, but also of catastrophes, war and death” says the composer. The Mediterranean Sea represents for him the connection of the European with the Arab-Moorish world. Sánchez-Verdú seeks and finds a correspondence between Arabic poetry, calligraphy and architecture in his own musical aesthetics: ornamentation embedded in strict structure. “There are very filigree patterns that are developed in a geometric way through a surface, so that they can no longer be traced. You can only see the figure as a whole.”
Although only completed in 1945/46, Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s second string quartet still recalls the horrors of the Nazi era and the war. It is no coincidence that the motif of the slow introduction of the first movement is reminiscent of the Jewish Eliyahu hanavi quotation, presented as the instrumental extreme of a lament initially led by the violoncello to the soprano. This form closes with an allusion to the whole tone sequence in Alban Berg’s violin concerto with the characteristic, latently resonant Bach chorale text “Es ist genug” [“It is enough”]. But what follows, described by the composer as “extremely lively and very energetic”, is the groundbreaking feat of a new beginning!

An event of the © Karl Amadeus Hartmann-Gesellschaft e. V., sponsoreed by Bayerische Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst, Kulturreferat der Landeshauptstadt München, LfA Förderbank Bayern and Bezirk Oberbayern.

In 1955 Karl Amadeus Hartmann wrote to the young Luigi Nono in his compositional album:
„Dein Stück soll virtuos, effektvoll, kühn, avantgardistisch, heutig, seherisch sein.“ [“Your piede should be virtuosic, effective, bold, avant-garde, contemporary, visionary.”] In the most beautiful way, our first concert of this year should make it clear that this not-so-silent demand (and also challenge) – which consciously frees itself from any musical style, focuses on content and unmistakably inspires a substantial opening – is timelessly valid. On the one hand, we can look forward to two works by the composers Philipp Mayer (*1995) and Hans-Henning Ginzel (*1988), which have been newly commissioned by us hot off the press.

On the other hand, Gloria Coates’ (*1938) “Night Music” and “Sonata for Piano No. 2”, as well as Georges Aperghis’ (*1945) “Rasch” invite us on a renewed journey of discovery through the rich œuvre of these two capital composers. Gloria Coates, who celebrated her 80th birthday last year, achieved an international breakthrough with the premiere of her “Music on Open Strings” (Symphony No. 1) at Warsaw Autumn 1978. It should become the most discussed work of the festival. In a music world dominated by men for a long time, she made her debut two years later with exactly this piece – as the first female composer with an orchestral work – in the musica viva concert series founded by Hartmann. Just how much Gloria Coates assimilates Hartmann’s demand is also revealed by her contribution to Renate Ulm’s (ed.) book “Eine Sprache der Gegenwart – musica viva 1945-1995”, in which she not only explicitly refers to Hartmann’s much discussed essay “Warum ist Neue Musik so schwer zu hören?” [Why is New Music so difficult to listen to?”] (1957), but also continues it – „reflektiert und in die Zukunft gedacht“ [“reflectively and with thought into the future” – in her own way.

The ensemble hartmann21 takes you into new worlds this time as well: By combining works for solo, duo and trio instrumentation, you may expect the most diverse tonal values through saxophone, viola, piano and gongs. The concert concludes with a discussion with Gloria Coates and the two composers of the works to be premiered: Philipp Mayer and Hans-Henning Ginzel.

An event of the © Karl Amadeus Hartmann-Gesellschaft e. V., sponsored by Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst, Kulturreferat der Landeshauptstadt München, LfA Förderbank Bayern and Bezirk Oberbayern.

In 2019 the Karl Amadeus Hartmann Composition Prize will be awarded for the first time!

NMZ (January 23, 2019): “The Karl Amadeus Hartmann Society announces for the first time in 2019 the Karl Amadeus Hartmann Composition Prize for String Trio (violin, viola, violoncello) to promote young composers. The Society is committed to the mission and intention of Karl Amadeus Hartmann to promote young, highly talented composers and to introduce them to the humanistic and socio-political dimensions of his works.

Members of the jury:
Isabel Mundry
Composer – Professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München

Clemens Schuldt (permanent member)
Conductor – Chief conductor of the Münchner Kammerorchester

Ingolf Turban
Violinist – Professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München

Hans-Hennig Ginzel (permanent member)
Composer, cellist – Musical director of the ensemble hartmann21

Andreas Hérm Baumgartner (Chair of the jury, permanent member)
Artistic Director, conductor – Managing Director of the Karl Amadeus Hartmann-Gesellschaft / Hartmann-Center

„Die Welt als Schlachthaus“ [“The world as a slaughterhouse”] – for Karl Amadeus Hartmann as well as for Heiner Müller, this was not a theoretical experience, but experienced reality. Composed in the last days of the war before the final collapse of the inhuman “Third Reich”, the sonata “27. April 1945” for piano solo concludes the canon of compositions with which Hartmann, since 1927, untiringly opposed the incipient and in 1933 assertive National Socialism. He rigorously refused to be appropriated by the totalitarian regime in Germany and went into internal emigration, while as a composer he tried to speak abroad all the more eloquently. In his music, however, Hartmann not only mourns the loss of humanity, but also accuses and explicitly understands his composition as a “Gegenaktion” [“Counter action”]. The “slaughterhouse” has also become a topos for Heiner Müller’s work. His texts oscillate between the poles of an endless and hopeless cycle of violence and the utopia of a revolution – „die Lücke im Ablauf, das Loch in der Ewigkeit“ [“the gap in the course of events, the hole in eternity”] – as works and counterworks.
Bibiana Beglau, one of the most renowned actresses, could be won for the reading of the text excerpts from “Hamletmaschine” and “Verkommenes Ufer – Medeamaterial – Landschaft mit Argonauten”. An Hartmanns historischem Flügel wird sie begleitet von Andreas Skouras, einem der versiertesten Interpreten des Œuvres Bernd Alois Zimmermanns.

An event of the © Karl Amadeus Hartmann-Gesellschaft e. V., sponsored by Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst, Kulturreferat der Landeshauptstadt München and Bezirk Oberbayern.

Composed immediately after the National Socialists seized power in 1933, Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s first String quartet stands exemplarily for the canon of compositions with which he composed against National Socialism. At the age of 28, he rigorously refused any form of appropriation and went into internal emigration in Germany. He smuggled his works abroad, however, in order to speak there all the more eloquently. By constantly including Jewish melodies (especially the Passover song Eliyahu hanavi) as well as music and text quotations of ostracized and forbidden artists, Hartmann tried to convey his message of boundless humanity in all his compositions.
Furthermore, our ensemble hartmann21 is dedicated to compositions by the young Dresden composer Jadwiga Frej (UA) and the renowned composer Mark Andre. Twenty-one years old Jadwiga Frej, who was born in Poland and grew up and lives in Dresden, must already be counted among the most exciting voices of her generation. The composer Mark Andre, born in Paris in 1964, creates existential spaces of experience in his music, which are characterized by subtle processes of change. The Hamburger Abendblatt called his chamber music, which is as fine as it is concentrated, „Kartenhäuser des Klangs, die kein Wind umzublasen vermag“ [“houses of cards of sound that no wind can blow around”]. …zu…, whose title refers to the Revelation of John from Patmos (22,5), ist joined by Andre’s iv8. “iv” is the abbreviation for i(ntro)v(ertiertheit). It is about inner compositional spaces that are developed by focusing on fluctuating and fragile sound form.
Where are the limits of perception, of notation, of sound experience? We would like to explore these questions together with the composers Jadwiga Frej and Mark Andre.

An event of the © Karl Amadeus Hartmann-Gesellschaft e. V., sponsored by Bayerische Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst, Kulturreferat der Landeshauptstadt München, LfA Förderbank Bayern and Bezirk Oberbayern.

With Helmut Lachenmann and Peter Eötvös, we can welcome two of the most incisive composers who have cruciallly shapened the music history of the 20th and 21st century. Lachenmann set very individual impulses, especially through systematic exploration of the instruments and innovative expansion of their playing techniques. In this way, the way music is created is included as well as, for example, timbre and volume. “TemA” – created in 1968 – is probably one of the first compositions in which breathing as an acoustically mediated, energetic process was a central theme. Entirely in the spirit of Karl Amadeus Hartmann, music here claims a socio-critical potential: „Schönheit als verweigerte Gewohnheit.“ [“Beauty as a denied habit”] (Helmut Lachenmann)
In his works “Psy” for flute, violoncello and piano and “Two poems to Polly” (text by Lady Sarashina from the 11th century) for a “speaking cellist”, Peter Eötvös also explores the field of tension between sound and language. His music has a language-analogue structure and draws from a rich fund of colours and moods. It is a special pleasure to meet Peter Eötvös – one of the most renowned conductors and pianists – also as interpreter of his own compositions “Erdenklavier – Himmelklavier” and “Un taxi l’attend, mais Tchékhov préfère aller à pied”.
With our new own ensemble hartmann21, we continue to feel committed to Hartmann’s intention to promote young, highly talented composers and performers. In this singularly composed programme we would like to introduce the Hungarian Máté Balogh and the Munich-based Swede Henrik Ajax, who in their newly created works refer to the two “light figures” of contemporary music, Lachenmann and Eötvös, trace content-related references and reflect and condense the theme of “music and language” in their respective individual ways.

An event of the © Karl Amadeus Hartmann-Gesellschaft e. V., sponsored by Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst, Kulturreferat der Landeshauptstadt München, LfA Förderbank Bayern and Bezirk Oberbayern.

SZ (February 2, 2018): “The Karl Amadeus Hartmann Society allows itself a new ensemble of its own. The critical spirit of the eponym is thus to be brought into the present.”

We feel particularly committed to the intention of Karl Amadeus Hartmann to promote young, highly talented composers and performers and to introduce them to the humanistic and socio-political dimensions of his works. Within the framework of our series of events hartmann21 – with its soloist concerts and the format “Podium of Young Composers” – this request was taken into account in the past two seasons. Now we would like to build on this, but also break new ground and present to you for the first time our newly founded ensemble, the ensemble hartmann21.
In order to intensify the promotion of young national and international composers and to achieve a higher density of content, we have also developed a new concept for our concert series. An essential part of this is the collaboration with outstanding composers and performers, such as Peter Eötvös and Helmut Lachenmann (concert in June 2018) or Mark André (concert October 2018). Their extensive experience and international networking should benefit our musicians and composers and carry their quality perspectively to the “outside world”.
Under the title “Vexierbilder” we are pleased to present you in our premiere concert compositions by Jörg Widmann, Michael Jarrell and Toru Takemitsu as well as world premieres by Diana Syrse, Sebastian Schwab, Jan Masanetz, Tom Smith and Hans-Henning Ginzel. From solo, duo to trio instrumentation, the ensemble hartmann21 will carry you off into a play of light and shadow.

An event of the © Karl Amadeus Hartmann-Gesellschaft e. V., sponsored by Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst, Kulturreferat der Landeshauptstadt München, LfA Förderbank Bayern and Bezirk Oberbayern.