KLANGSPUREN - NADAR ENSEMBLE
"You have become a museum piece," wrote the Dutch music philosopher Marlies de Munck in a letter to "Mr Bach" in 2019: "A piece that sounds beautiful but is difficult to talk to. Please don't touch it." Now the ultra-nationalist Dutch politician Thierry Baudet is instrumentalising Bach's music for his conservative message: "He presents himself as your saviour and that of our entire culture. (...) You no longer have a voice to protest against this, the man knows that very well," says de Munck. "It's painful, but he's forcing us to face facts: We ourselves have taken that voice away from you. We have locked you away in an institution for elites, guarded by know-it-alls." Giving Bach a voice again - this is the motto of the Nadar Ensemble's I'll be back programme. Various compositions are given space here, by Bach himself, but also by other composers, some of whom play and work with elements from Bach. Joanna Bailie, for example, builds on an impression she had when listening to the Gigue from Bach's Fifth Cello Suite: a "strange resemblance" with an old-fashioned twist. Simon Steen-Andersen has arranged Bach's Capriccio sopra la lontananza del suo fratello dilettissimo for solo back guitar, and in Eva Reiter's In The Wilderness of mirrors, the ostinato bass from Bach's 2nd Partita enters a "multi-layered musical palace of mirrors", as the Nadar Ensemble writes. Marlies de Munck formulates the utopia that drives her as a question: "If we promise to let you out of your expensive prison, would you please become a human being among humans again?" This evening is perhaps a first attempt. (HS)
