crescendo26: GegenTöne – The Music Festival of the UdK Berlin
Art is not merely a pretty addition—it is the umbilical cord that connects us to the divine; it is what guarantees our humanity. (Nicolaus Harnoncourt)
We live in a time of uncertainty and upheaval, a time in which priorities are constantly shifting. Alongside education, the arts, “beauty,” and thus music are suspected of being secondary and are pushed into the background. Yet it is precisely music that can help build bridges and take a stand against exclusion, violence, oppression, and indifference.
Music fosters confidence, stimulates creativity and resilience, and offers comfort. Working together musically in the classroom, in an ensemble, or during rehearsals promotes openness to “the other” anew every day. So can we, as a society, afford to be “against” sounds?
In these politically turbulent times, crescendo26 takes the path of counter-sounds—we resist with sounds and words, with composers and musicians, and look back at times when music has already achieved precisely that.
The festival will be opened by the Symphony Orchestra of the Berlin University of the Arts under Michael Sanderling with Dmitri Shostakovich’s 12th Symphony. Shostakovich is arguably one of the shining examples of how music can express criticism and resistance against a regime; subtle, seemingly ambiguous, but all the clearer upon closer inspection.
Personal conflicts were, in turn, overcome in Brahms’ Double Concerto: a previous dispute with his friend Joseph Joachim, the founder of our University of the Arts, was successfully resolved through Brahms’ composition, intended as a “gift of reconciliation.”
In the music of our festival, the “contrast” also appears repeatedly in the harmony. In dissonances, closely related tones clash and strive toward resolution, toward harmony. They are the icing on the cake, the essential vehicle for emotion and the language of the soul. We witness this in Mathias Spahlinger’s Farben der Frühe, a work for seven grand pianos that seeks to elevate dissonance to a listening habit through varying tempos and dense clusters of sound. Sound production itself cannot occur without the physical resistance of a string that begins to vibrate. In Lachenmann’s Pression, every conceivable resistance of the cello is utilized to generate sound.
Nicolaus Harnoncourt, to whom we are dedicating an exhibition this year, once said:
From an early age, I always took the opposing position. I am not one to agree. I can only do so once I have also considered the opposing position. I also enjoy contradiction myself—I need someone to question my thoughts.
We need the “opposite.” Only by rebelling against social norms, constraints, and established structures can we continue to develop, can we denounce and put an end to injustices.Only through “resistance,” only through “counter-tones,” can there be a “moving forward.”
crescendo26 offers counter-tones. Loud and soft, subtle and obvious. As every year, students, faculty, and guests from across departments and faculties design the programs; all events are free to attend. Join us and stand with us for the importance of music in our city and our society; together, let’s take a stand against the dismantling of culture and for sound.
We look forward to seeing you!
Prof. Konstantin Heidrich
Artistic Director of crescendo26