You will hear:

• Kurt Schwitters: Original Sonata (extracts)
• Ruth Crawford Seeger: Music for Small Orchestra
• Arnold Schönberg: Pierrot lunaire, op. 21

Arnold Schönberg, a prominent figure of New Music, also lived in American exile. His melodrama “Pierrot lunaire” was produced at the Bauhaus in Weimar in 1922. His characteristic atonal music and innovative recitatives made it a key work of musical modernism. Claudia Barainsky will perform it for the “Bauhaus Music” festival.

Kurt Schwitters also incorporated novel linguistic elements – though far more radical – in his famous “Ursonate” (Sonata in Primal Sounds). In his sound poem, created between 1923 and 1932, he reduces language to its primal sounds and blurs the boundary between music and poetry. Schwitters recited his “Ursonate” at one of his guest performances at the Bauhaus. On Saturday evening Gunnar Brandt-Sigurdsson will be reciting excerpts from the Dada poem.

The evening will conclude with Ruth Crawford Seeger’s “Music for Small Orchestra”, a work of the American avant-garde. Her study of acoustic timbres and atmosphere is one of the few works by this radically modern composer who withdrew from the public eye after some initial success and devoted herself to studying folk music. Seeger composed “Music for Small Orchestra” shortly before she visited the Bauhaus Dessau – an experience she found especially freeing. It is this sentiment that inspired the 2024 “Bauhaus Music” festival motto: freedom.

With: Gunnar Brandt-Sigurdsson, Claudia Barainsky

Direction: Karl-Heinz Steffens
Host: Kai Hinrich Müller

Venue: Villa Elisabeth, Invalidenstraße 3, 10115 Berlin-Mitte.

Ticket prices:
Get your Early Bird tickets here until 31 August 2024 at a price of 15 euros, *reduced 7 euros per concert, plus fees.
From 1 September 2024: Regular 20 euros, *reduced 10 euros per concert, plus fees.

*Eligible for discount are: Pupils under the age of 18, trainees, students, volunteers (BFD, FSJ, FÖJ), senior citizens, severely disabled persons, recipients of ALG 1 and citizen's benefits, Berlin Pass holders, Members of Bauhaus-Archiv Association. Please carry proof with you.