The Scottish play- Macbeth Twelfth Night or What You Will Jenufa: From a brief news item in Moravia to a universal opera Bob Swaim on Bob l’Americain Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District: Thriller and Psychodrama Stage-director Jossi Wieler and Dramaturge Sergio Morabito discuss their production of Ariadne auf Naxos Naxos: geographical location and spiritual landscape The Marriage of Figaro: Mozart follows Beaumarchais “Così fan tutte” Giuseppe Verdi’s main work Don Carlo Stray Thoughts on the Comedy of Verdi’s “Falstaff” “Fledermaus” Music – a matter for the heart

Music – a matter for the heart

Thoughts on ancient music by Bernhard Trebuch

In connection with the revival of so-called “ancient music”, the word “authentic” appears again and again. Of course this is not without reason. Curiously enough, performers and of course in the meantime the public as well ask themselves whether the attempt to perform the music of past centuries has succeeded or not. This means whether it sounded the same or similar as at the time when it was written.

Whitsuntide Baroque 2001

Music always requires Authenticity

In principle this appears to be a legitimate question but as a matter of fact it is obsolete because music always requires authenticity. Authentic not in the sense of a Bach interpretation that attempts to play Bach in the same way that he himself performed his music. This kind of approach is always doomed to fail, not least because he claims the absolute for himself and actually this would mean the end of music. In other words authentic means seen from the individual position of the performing artist, and of the listener. Only those who are authentic in the sense of antiquity – genuine, true – will approach music so that its strength can also be transferred to others.

Hearing is always a momentary occurrence

Responding to music is dependent on many parameters: whether the performer or the listener is in good form, and on external circumstances and so on. Thus every concert experience, every hearing becomes a momentary occurrence, a spontaneously arising cosmos, whose identical experience cannot be repeated. (That is why, in the meaning of the word, there is no such thing as ancient music). Music is linked with great passion; music is something you sink into, a love, passion – regardless of the age of the composition. Of course these brief thoughts portray a very subjective ideal image which it is perhaps even impossible to achieve in every detail. Lasciate ogni speranza – abandon all hope, is what Dante Alighieri wrote and yet one should never give up hope. One should always be prepared to set out on a renewed search and plunge into (listening) adventures!
The programme of the Salzburg Whitsuntide Baroque Festival 2001 offers chances of achieving these ideals. For instance, Sir John Eliot Gardiner will perform Handel’s Israel in Egypt, one of the most monumental choral works of the Baroque period, with one of the best vocal ensembles of the 21st century. The British conductor is going back to his roots and directing his Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists in this magnificent oratorio by Handel. In order to write down the music of this splendid work, Handel had to use extraordinarily large manuscript paper. The concert by the Accordone Ensemble will present a different approach to interpretation. In “La Festa d’Accordone” the Italian ensemble and the brilliant vocal acrobat Marco Beasley will again prove that ancient music is not at all old but indeed can sound new and vivacious. “Love, Heart and Pain” are the motifs running through this programme with works by Claudio Monteverdi and his contemporaries.