Editorial 24

In view of shattering crises, certainties slipping away and the resulting helplessness with regard to one’s own scope for action, this is far more than just a music-related invitation.

 

»If I’m honest, I can’t get everything that’s driving me so hard right now onto the art level anymore!« This is how Christoph Ogiermann describes a condition that many artists feel. When geopolitical shifts and climate change become almost insoluble challenges, when societies are rapidly changing as a result, when a sense of democracy that was thought to be stable is fading, when autocrats who disregard human rights and terrorists are gaining approval from the midst of our society, one feels a shared responsibility as a creative artist. How can we as a civil society meet the challenges–and what do the arts contribute? Can we change something if we counter polarization with empathetic attention, accusations with thoughtfulness, condemnation with understanding, and slogans with differentiation?

 

At ECLAT, »changes of perspective« always arise in dialogues between music and other arts. For example, ten poets and composers from all over Europe work closely together on »Poetry Affairs. Literary sources, however, also influence the musical form of many other projects–such as Yair Klartag’s «Music of the Sefira” or Christian Mason’s »Invisible Threads«, which is held together by a remarkable »polyphonic« text by Paul Griffiths.

 

Incidentally, this »sound ritual« also celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Arditti Quartet. Many proven performers–not least the Neue Vocalsolisten, SWR Symphonieorchester and SWR Vokalensemble as the »pillars« of the festival–characterize this year’s edition. But some will also make their ECLAT debut, including the New York piano-percussion quartet Yarn/Wire, the Berlin ensemble Apparat and the Karlsruhe duo LAB51.

 

We are also hoping for debutants on the part of the audience, not least in the aforementioned sense of mission. Together with Ensemble SPORT, we are therefore creating an exciting, cross-border Beginners program.

ECLAT wants to give space to resolute statements, but also to the subtle unfolding of artistic concerns. We want to direct ears and eyes to details and offer space to the sublime, to challenge expectations and create empathetic access to a multi-layered festival. Self-affirming, encouraging, uplifting, experiential. Welcome to five days full of perspectives!

 

Christine Fischer, Artistic Director

and the team of Musik der Jahrhunderte