Affirming Life. ​The Goetheanum eurythmy ensemble‘s premiere of ‘Leuchtfäden’

Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland, 3 December 2019

Affirming Life
The Goetheanum eurythmy ensemble‘s premiere of ‘Leuchtfäden’

On December 28th, 2019 the Goetheanum eurythmy ensemble will perform its new program ‘Leuchtfäden’ (Rays of Light). It‘s about being on the move and the spaces in between. On the occasion of Ludwig van Beethoven‘s 250th birthday two movements from his string quartet Opus 132 will be performed.

Today‘s lifestyle includes being on the move without knowing where the road will take you. There is no map or navigation for this journey. The direction evolves in the spaces between each other – and thus is constantly forming anew. This underlying mood finds its musical expression in Ludwig van Beethoven‘s string quartet Opus 132 with the slow movement ‘Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit in der lydischen Tonart’ (Holy song of thanksgiving of a convalescent to the Deity in the Lydian mode). The music takes its time, has only a few elements, hardly changes key – one can imagine getting a feeling of what eternity might be like.

The string quartet is the backdrop for excerpts from the novel ‘Das Wasser unserer Träume’ (The water of our dreams), in which Marica Bodrožic describes in a subtle and at the same time vivid way how a human being in a coma lives between the perception of a pure life function and the movements of consciousness, and through the love of the people around him – through their rays of light – is able to return to his life before the coma.

In scenes from ‘El cántaro roto’ (Broken Jug) Octavio Paz tells the dramatic story of life on earth. Beginning with the experience of paradise, the environment becomes narrower and lonelier – violence breaks through until man recognizes: another life is possible. The apocalyptic event continues with the words of Thomas Stearns Eliot from ‘The Wasteland’ and finds a musical echo in two pieces from ‘Je sens un deuxième coeur’ (I feel a second heart) by Kaija Saariaho. The fifth movement of the Beethoven Quartet leads back to everyday consciousness: life, as much as it has gone through horror and paralysis, finds joy in convalescence and being able to resume. The movement is a pure affirmation of life.

(2090 characters/SJ, translation by Bettina Hindes)

Program Leuchtfäden (Filaments of Light), Goetheanum Eurythmy Ensemble
Premiere 28 December 2019, 8 p.m. Goetheanum Further Performances 6 February 2020, 3 and 11 April 2020 Web www.goetheanum-buehne.ch (in German)

Contact Person Katrin Oesteroth, Tel. +41 61 706 42 50, buehne@goetheanum.ch