Ensemble Modern

The musical contribution to the Bauhaus-year. Louis Andriessen dedicated the third part of his full-length work of musical theatre “De Materie” to the artists’ movement “De Stijl”, which was in close connection to the Bauhaus and its ideas; Piet Mondrian remained their best-known representative. The musical freestyler Andriessen, whose orchestration includes instruments played in rock music, not only incorporates statements about Mondrian and “Plastic Mathematics” as lyrics, but also organises the piece’s dramaturgy and time sequences according to the principles of Mondrian’s geometry – an exciting experiment on freedom and adventure. Andriessen is interested in the “clear line” – and in the music’s physicality. This was, claimed Dieter Schnebel, the “disturbing and fascinating” characteristic of Varèse’s music, regardless of whether he mobilised a huge apparatus, one instrument, or an ensemble with or without electronics. “In Varése’s music, we can physically experience what sound it, as it were; we not only hear the vibrations, we feel them.” The physique of the instrumental sound becomes the centre of Olga Neuwirth’s concept of a modern piano concerto. “The colours of the soloist are complemented by a ‘double’ from the sampler keyboard, which adds microtones to the tonal space of the piano; the ensemble explores an expanded musical space. The material is in a state of flow.” “De materia”, on music and matter, could be the title of Ensemble Modern’s programme.