5+1 Questions for Michal Friedländer about the Bauhaus Music festival

Although music wasn’t an official part of the curriculum at the Bauhaus, it was omnipresent. Many members of the Bauhaus explored music in connection to their work, they performed together in their free time, and some were even professionally trained musicians. For example, Wassily Kandinsky described his works as compositions with rhythm and melody. Gertrud Grunow, a music teacher who taught “Harmonisation Theory” at the Bauhaus, was strongly influenced by Alexander Skryabin’s theories on synesthesia and the connections between music and colour

And then there were all the Bauhaus members who actually produced music themselves. Lyonel Feininger was a pianist who played the entire gamut of Bach’s works. He even composed several fugues! Baroque music played an essential role in the thinking of the Bauhaus members, especially that of Johann Sebastian Bach. Paul Klee was a violinist and great admirer of Mozart. And then there were others, like Oskar Schlemmer, who cultivated close contacts with contemporary composers like Arnold Schönberg, Igor Stravinsky and Paul Hindemith. They planned projects together – mostly in the area of theatre, the performing arts and opera.

Composers regularly attended the musical soirées organised at the Bauhaus. On these evenings, audiences were treated to performances by some of the most innovative contemporary musicians around, such as Henry Cowell, Viviane Fine and others.

Nowadays when we think about music at the Bauhaus, what most often comes to mind is the famous Bauhaus Orchestra – a group of students who had never received formal training as musicians. That didn’t stop them from picking up some random instrument or everyday object and performing music together. The Bauhaus Orchestra was an attempt to somehow translate the processes and social movements of their world into music. As you see, musical life at the Bauhaus was very multifaceted.

Dieses Jahr gibt es mehrere aufregende neue Entwicklungen:  Zunächst wechseln wir den Veranstaltungsort. Mit der ersten Ausgabe von „bauhaus music“ warfen wir 2023 einen Blick hundert Jahre zurück auf die Bauhaus-Woche – der historische Meistersaal war deshalb der perfekte This year holds a number of exciting new developments. First of all, we’re changing the venue. In the first edition of “bauhaus music” in 2023, we focused on the centennial of the Bauhaus Week. And the historical Meistersaal was the perfect venue to underscore the historical perspective even more strongly. This year we’re very happy to be hosted at Villa Elisabeth and St. Elisabeth’s – wonderfully versatile rooms that can be used for rehearsals, concerts and our educational programmes.

Together with Cathy Milliken, we’ll be presenting works by a contemporary composer for the first time as part of a lunch concert. I think it’ll be a wonderful addition, entirely in the spirit of the Bauhaus. Cathy Milliken will also be working together with pupils in an educational programme featuring a special method that she calls a “participative composition process”. I’m really looking forward to seeing the results she’ll be presenting together with the pupils.

Another development is that we’re thinking much bigger in this year’s edition. Last year we only had one ensemble. This year we’ve invited an entire chamber orchestra: The German Chamber Orchestra of Berlin will be the centrepiece of Friday’s programme. Most of the musicians are members of the orchestra at the Komisches Oper. Karl-Heinz Steffens will be conducting them on Friday evening, and our soloist will be the violinist Kolja Blacher – I hope dropping this teaser will be enough to draw in the crowds.

It will truly be a wonderful concert at St. Elisabeth’s! Last year we presented a kaleidoscope of musical pieces which were historically related to the Bauhaus Week. This year we’ll be delving deeper into the life stories of certain Bauhaus figures. On Saturday, we’ll be featuring an entire portrait concert dedicated to Stefan Wolpe. For me, he is really one of the most fascinating figures that stands out in the context of the Bauhaus and music.

And finally, there’s another highlight – the festival kicks off with a sensational discovery by Kai Hinrich Müller (also part of the artistic direction team; Ed.). While researching the musical life at the Bauhaus, we discovered “Parabola and Circula”, an avant-garde opera written in 1929/30 by the American composer Marc Blitzstein. It was supposed to premiere at the Dessau Theatre, but it never happened. At the Lunch Concert at the temporary bauhaus-archiv on 17 October, festival goers will be able to listen to excerpts from the opera for the first time.

As for what to expect next year, I can only promise you one thing: Everything will be even bigger!

I’m part of a three-person team together with Karl-Heinz Steffens and Kai-Hinrich Müller. Concerning the programme, we work together like a think-tank. We start by writing lots of emails back and forth and meeting up for extended dinners during which each of us shares our individual perspectives, wishes and ideas for the festival. Our goal is to design a new and interesting programme that we can realistically implement. I’m in charge of handling many of the organisational tasks, for example, recruiting musicians and scouting for performance venues for the festival. I also draw up the rehearsal schedules for all the musicians and coordinate timetables and instrument rentals.

It has been especially rewarding to examine the life of Stefan Wolpe even more deeply this year. When I put the programme together and looked at his various works, I thought a lot about which ones best represented his musical career and personal background, as well as his relationship to the Bauhaus. I don’t want to give away too much, but only invite all your readers to attend this extraordinary concert!

One of the reasons why this work is so meaningful to me is that my piano teacher, the late Professor Benjamin Oren, with whom I’d worked since I was twelve, studied together with Irma Wolpe Rademacher at the Juilliard School. She was Stefan’s second wife, a fantastic pianist herself and a wonderful teacher. It was through Benjamin Oren that I learned a lot about her and Stefan. He also introduced me to a very special composition by Stefan Wolpe which will be performed at this year’s festival: the two piano suite “The Man from Midian”, inspired by the history of Moses.

That’s a difficult question. This year’s motto has a dual meaning. On one hand, we felt it important to address the subject of artistic freedom. Kai-Hinrich Müller was inspired by something the composer Ruth Crawford Seeger wrote regarding her visit at the Bauhaus: “The Bauhaus yesterday was an experience. It made a big impression on me. In fact, I was for a few minutes strongly tempted – to study there!! Have you seen pictures of the place? … It is the most optimistic place in feeling (I mean, the architecture, the space-feeling, the light) …. I felt released, freed.” This feeling of freedom which arises from collaboration and mutual inspiration is something that many members of the Bauhaus experienced in those days.

Exile, in this sense, could mean that those who had to emigrate took the Bauhaus with them in how they thought and in their artistic freedom. This guided the spirit and ideas of the Bauhaus at Black Mountain College and at all the other places where the former members of the Bauhaus eventually ended up.

On the other hand, the motto “Freedom and Exile” also has to do with personal freedom. Like many other cultural and artistic movements, the Bauhaus was forced to close in the early years of the Nazi regime in Germany. Many Bauhaus artists had to flee and live in exile, such as Kurt Schwitters whose “Ursonate” [Sonata in Primal Sounds] will be performed at the festival. Although he wasn’t Jewish, his works were considered “degenerate” and for that reason, he had to leave the country. Arnold Schönberg emigrated as well, as did Stefan Wolpe. His story is especially painful and tragic – I encourage everyone to come to the concert on Saturday to learn more about his life. He initially moved to Palestine but left in 1938 under dramatic circumstances to resettle in the United States.

There is surely a lot to say about the meaning of Bauhaus music and the topic of freedom and exile for us today. In short, the Bauhaus was active in the Weimar Republic and closed its doors in the 1930s several years before the war. I think for us, as a society, it’s important to reflect intensively on the years before the Nazis seized power. We have to remember and recognise the parallels of what is happening in our society today. Many people are concerned about the political situation in Germany, Europe and the whole world. The history of the Bauhaus is to a certain extent a perfect starting point to listen to and learn from the past – for the sake of our future.

VERY MUCH! I have the great privilege of not only planning this year’s festival programme, but also performing several pieces – and I’m thrilled! I’ll be performing “Pierrot Lunaire” and also playing the piano line in the piece by Bartók for strings, percussion and celesta. I’ll be performing the “Two Piano Suite” by Stefan Wolpe together with a colleague from the Hebrew University, the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem.

We’ve decided to perform the piece together in Jerusalem as well as Berlin since the Rubin Academy was Stefan Wolpe’s home when he moved to Palestine and founded this department for composition at the university. I’m right in the middle of the rehearsal and learning process for a number of pieces – so I’ve got a lot of Bauhaus in my appointment calendar.

Oh, the Triadic Ballet, right? It’s wonderful. It represents the 20^th century so well – but is also so modern! Intriguing and whimsical.