Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic: intensity and inspiration

In the chamber music hall, the Karajan Academy serenades opulently: György Ligeti was born exactly 100 years ago to the day in Transylvania. The young orchestra, conducted by Susanna Mälkki, performs together with the pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, both internationally renowned luminaries.

In the spirit of the academy, the young generation can also help shape the evening with Oscar Jockel and the composition award winner of the Schwarzkopf Foundation, Hovik Sardaryan. Sardaryan’s “The Joy of Blossoming” was launched by Jockel, currently assistant to Kirill Petrenko and a scholarship holder at the Karajan Academy.

Liveness Concert

The liveliness of the concert experience goes beyond the vital external “scenes”. After a brilliant Ligeti piano concerto, when the hall and stage are already in the process of dissolving the final applause, Aimard storms to the piano again, thanks for the “intensive” evening and says goodbye with a wink with Drei Bagatelles – the miniatures that get by with a single note , while the instrument is otherwise silent to the performer’s gestures.

Or the effective staging of the Poème Symphonique, a “mechanical” piece for 100 metronomes that tick busily behind the audience in the darkened hall. The Joke of the Six Bagatelles then bursts out attacca from a wind quintet – bathed in green light – and finally establishes the happening character.

After the premiere of “The Joy of Blossoming”, many in the audience had already stood up – only the courageous intervention of individual spectators made them wait for the Ligetic Chamber Concert before the break.

A border crosser for life

Györgi Ligeti, who saw his compositional-aesthetic sphere of influence between “traditional avant-garde” and “postmodernism”, remained a border crosser throughout his life in search of new paths. In addition to their own ideas, the work processes are essentially fed by concepts borrowed from the natural sciences or by dealing with pop and folk music, as well as with non-European cultures.

So how fitting that the Carnival of Cultures takes place on his birthday. Of course, Ligeti’s oeuvre offers less easy listening potential. Some of the diverse, demanding concepts of the composer, who is always willing to share information, will be presented in a representative manner today. Whether micropolyphony, polyphonic sound networks, oscillating sound surfaces or polymetry: Above all, it is the fascination for unconventional rhythmic and harmonic approaches that can be experienced.

It is understandable when the “Ramifications” that follow Stravinsky’s “Monomentum pro Gesualdo” arouse the urge for a break refreshment. It is also quite conceivable that the somewhat static, coarse clumps of sound in Sardaryan’s piece are partly responsible. Curatorially, however, there is nothing to blame. The great commitment of all performers is a fitting celebration of the birthday of one of the most influential composer figures of the 20th century.