NEWSLETTER 07/21

Hope you are doing well! Hope to see you soon! What are you hoping for this day or what have you been hoping for in the last few hours? Was it incidental or urgent, trivial or essential? Achievable or utopian? Were you hoping to catch the bus or that the pandemic would finally be over?

We need hope. It looks to the future, opens up spaces, provides comfort. Without it, everything is dead. Hope has a special relationship with parting. In the last lecture in the "Farewell - A Million Ways to Say Goodbye" series, Dr. Verena Mogl therefore addresses this elementary topic, explains theories from philosophy and psychology on the concept of hope, spans the arc to "music and emotions" and, above all, invites you to pay attention to the many facets of your own hope.

The lecture will be livestreamed on July 1

"The Moldau - I love it very much. It is simply a totally captivating piece that hits the spot: catchy and yet elementary in the best sense of the word, conveyed without explanation." This is how Nicolas Kierdorf describes it when he conducts the famous work from Smetana's "My Fatherland" cycle at the symphony concert on July 4, which is on the program that evening alongside Ravel's Piano Concerto and Beethoven's 6th Symphony.

"Of course, it is particularly difficult to do such a well-known piece well. Routine damages the idea. My wish for Moldau would be to bring out the enormous suggestive power of this music. That the images really arise in a kind of head cinema through auditory impressions." And who could be better suited to this than our symphony orchestra? "They have the youth bonus, the freshness and directness as well as the emotional plus of a 'first time' with such a repertoire piece."

In May, Nicolas Kierdorf was one of 10 semi-finalists out of 300 participants in the renowned 'Donatella Flick Conducting Competition' in London and is taking his concert exam at the HfMT in Prof. Ulrich Windfuhr's conducting class.

We present the two symphony concerts on July 3 under the direction of Ulrich Windfuhr and on July 4 under the direction of the HfMT conducting class.

Music theater directing student Karina Häßlein takes us into the confused depths of Hans Castorp from Thomas Mann's 'The Magic Mountain' with her final production "The Magic Mountain - A Lying Cure in 3 Chapters".

In a kind of interactive performance, the audience is guided through a former clinic site in Geesthacht and regularly sent into approximately 6-minute recumbent listening units, which are intended to enable a re-experience of the recumbent cures used in the past against tuberculosis.

In Thomas Mann's novel, Hans Castorp initially came to the sanatorium in Davos as a visitor and ended up staying for seven years, only to successively indulge in increasingly insane mental constructs and completely lose the distinction between guest and patient in anticipation of ominous political developments. "I try to make it possible to experience this mental state, the mega-insane thoughts and absurd feelings that find their breeding ground in the endless loop between waking and sleeping," says Karina Häßlein.

The change in consciousness is supported and promoted by the music composed by Lukas Kurz especially for this purpose. Late romantic sounds initially suggest a relaxed feeling, which is repeatedly interrupted and disturbed by electronic interjections and meditative elements.

As part of the Kultursommer am Kanal, the performance, which lasts around 75 minutes, can be experienced in several runs on July 4. Further information can be found here.

There are many reasons to recommend the concert by Ensemble Bentō on July 8: for the newsletter writer, the use of a harp, which is still relatively exotic in the world of jazz, is a real hit; for others, it is one of the first opportunities to experience our newly opened JazzHall. Eight outstanding young musicians from the HfMT come together with great passion and a program that, in their own words, combines the modern sounds of jazz with ethnic music from different cultures to create an imaginary folklore.

If you want to get an impression, take a look at their trailer or listen to the livestream of the concert at JazzBaltica from last weekend.

I talk to drummer Patrick Huss on the way back from the concert in Timmendorfer Strand ("everything went really well - it was great fun!"). He founded the ensemble a few years ago together with harpist Nora-Elisa Kahl. Since then, they have developed enormously and expanded the line-up to an octet. The ensemble has accompanied him throughout his studies, so it is "only logical that I should bring it to my Bachelor's degree." He is really looking forward to performing in the JazzHall: "It's simply a great space. It sounds good, looks great and you immediately feel at home there."

You can hear Bentō at the JazzHall on July 8th