Georg Katzer – Homage to his 90th birthday

What connects Georg Katzer, Vladimir Jurowski and unitedberlin? It all began in early 1994, with our ensemble’s very first joint concert with Vladimir Jurowski. The program also included Katzer’s scene for chamber ensemble, which can be experienced again in this homage. In addition, Helmut Zapf, Lutz Glandien and Ralf Hoyer, former master students of Katzer at the Akademie der Künste, honor their mentor with world premieres. They will bring current references to the day or to cultural politics into the action, just as Georg Katzer incorporated them into his scene 50 years ago – at that time still subversively, under the cloak of quotes from Goethe about his musical environment.

Katzer’s vision of Eutopia, which he calls his “hymn for an unknown land”, can be understood in the context of this problem of forced ambiguity.
The poetry of Büchner Prize winner Wolfgang Hilbig has been one of Georg Katzer’s most important points of reference since the early 1980s. La fabbrica abbandonata III is based on one of Hilbig’s texts, where language and music meet congenially.

Georg Katzer
La fabbrica abbandonata III (2010/11) Text: Wolfgang Hilbig
Eutopia (2015)
Scene for chamber ensemble (1975)

Plus world premieres by Lutz Glandien, Ralf Hoyer and Helmut Zapf

Josefine Mindus, soprano
Matthias Bauer, speaker
ensemble unitedberlin
Vladimir Jurowski, conductor

The concert is part of the Month of Contemporary Music Berlin. www.field-notes.berlin