They couldn’t be more different: the two composers celebrating anniversaries, John Cage and Wolfgang Rihm, who provide the thematic arc of this year’s contemporary music festival.
As in a scientific investigation, MaerzMusik 2012 contrasts two poles of a contemporary musical cosmos: the great grandfather of experimental music Cage, whose 100th birthday will take place in 2012, and the creator of his own expressive universe Rihm, who will be 60 years old on 13th March.
The festival will be opened by vocalist and original Cage performer Joan La Barbara and her new production of the legendary Song Books. A unique line-up is presented by the Sonic Arts (Re) Union, which brings together the most influential American composers to succeed Cage: Bob Ashley, David Behrman, Alvin Lucier and Gordon Mumma.
MaerzMusik Festival 2012 | Trailer
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=QmB2bD8FkXQ
La Monte Young’s concert cycle with The Just Alap Raga Ensemble, for which Marian Zazeela will transform the Villa Elisabeth in Berlin-Mitte into a Dream House, is quite a sensation as well.
The popular nightly Sonic Arts Lounge at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele and in Berghain introduces musicians of a younger generation such as Elliott Sharp (with zeitkratzer), Annie Gosfield and Tomomi Adachi.
Pran Nath, Young, Zazeela and Riley | Live in Rome, 1977
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=nlqXyjwJwYM
The festival will conclude with an excursion to the Botanical Gardens: here cacti and other succulents will be used as instruments for the Cage piece Branches.
The whole programme of the MaerzMusik festival 2012 is available on the website of the Berliner Festspiele: www.berlinerfestspiele.de
MaerzMusik – Festival für aktuelle Musik
Saturday, 17.03. – Sunday, 25.03.2012
Different Venues: Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Radialsystem V, Konzerthaus Berlin, Kammermusiksaal der Philharmonie, Philharmonie uvm.
MaerzMusik Festival @ berlinerfestspiele.de
