Electronic Stockhausen: »Klang«
Hamburg International Music Festival
In »Klang«, his last, unfinished cycle of compositions, Karlheinz Stockhausen took as his subject the 24 hours of the day – 21 pieces of which he completed before his death. A group of soloists around Kathinka Pasveer, who collaborated closely with Stockhausen when he was alive, now presents four of these pieces at the music festival, including the entirely electronic »Cosmic Pulses« and the last piece of the cycle, »Paradies«, which was premiered by Pasveer in Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle in 2009.
Please note: Hamburg’s port anniversary celebrations take place from 10-13 May in the immediate vicinity of the Elbphilharmonie. As a result, access to the Elbphilharmonie is restricted. Closures and restrictions during port anniversary.
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a great utopian, hence the decision to devote an extensive retrospective to him at the Hamburg International Music Festival. As head of the studio for electronic music at West German Radio (WDR), he used early forms of the synthesizer to create an entire cosmos of thitherto-unprecedented sounds, advancing into new musical dimensions in the process. His works breathe the rhythm of the stars, and get lost in the spiral nebulas of infinity.
»If we tax our mind to the utmost and arrive at the limits of what can be analysed and described, that’s where mysticism begins. That’s my home as a musician, that’s where I want to go.«
Towards the end, the eccentric esoteric even claimed that he was from the planet Sirius. Notwithstanding, Stockhausen was the best-known and most important post-war German composer, influencing artists as diverse as the Beatles, Björk, Brian Eno, Pink Floyd, Amon Düül, Aphex Twin, Kraftwerk and Frank Zappa. Stockhausen believed firmly in a higher plane of human existence, and he believed that music was the key to it. It’s worth following him on this path: the utopia of music lives on.
Performers
Helen Bledsoe flute
Marco Blaauw trumpet
Marcus Weiss saxophone
Kathinka Pasveer
Programme
Auszüge aus »Klang – Die 24 Stunden des Tages«:
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Edentia / 20. Stunde aus »Klang«
Harmonien / 5. Stunde aus »Klang«
Paradies / 21. Stunde aus »Klang«
– Interval –
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Cosmic Pulses / 13. Stunde aus »Klang«