Goetheanum reopens with festive piano concert: Summer of Culture at the Goetheanum

Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland, 19 June 2020

Summer of Culture at the Goetheanum
Goetheanum reopens with festive piano concert

The charity concert on 28 June, which will open the Summer of Culture at the Goetheanum, will also constitute the Goetheanum‘s festive reopening after cultural venues were locked down by the Swiss government in March.

“We very much look forward to hearing music in a concert again, played on acoustic instruments!” Stefan Hasler is referring to the “whole range of sound” one will be able to hear again – in contrast to digital devices that often cut out the overtones. Stefan Hasler, who also studied conducting and piano at Basel, is head of the Section for the Performing Arts at the Goetheanum.

After the ‘May at the Goetheanum’ event in the park, the Goetheanum wishes to thank people in the region for their active and silent support during the crisis with a concert on 28 June at 5 p.m. “Under the heading ‘Five pianists and two grand pianos’ we will end the imposed closure and reopen the Main Auditorium”, says Stefan Hasler. Hasler himself, Johannes Greiner, Hartwig Joerges, Olaf Marggraf and Hristo Kazakov will play on two grand pianos, one of them having recently been completely refurbished. Although the composers are, again, all male, Stefan Hasler promises “a rich sound and a rarely heard repertoire” with works by Francis Poulenc, Gustav Holst, Dmitri Shostakovich, Ludwig van Beethoven, Alexander Skriabin, Hans-Georg Burghardt, Joseph Matthias Hauser, Sergei Rachmaninoff und Witold Lutoslawski. The concert is free of charge but there will be a retiring collection. The usual Covid-19 restrictions apply and audience members will be asked to leave their details at reception.

The new production of Johann Wolfgang Goethe‘s ‘Faust 1 & 2’ in nine hours will premiere on 10 to 12 July. Andrea Pfaehler is the director and Eduardo Torres is responsible for the eurythmy. The premiere will be followed by two more ‘Faust’ weekends in July and one performance-only event in October. The Arlesheim youth theatre Junge Bühne, also under the direction of Andrea Pfaehler, will present guest performances at the Goetheanum between 28 August to 6 September, showing a programme based on Thornton Wilder‘s ‘The Skin of Our Teeth’.

Until 5 July Ortwin Pennemann is exhibiting 28 pictures at the Goetheanum on the theme of ‘The New Seed of the Earth’; from 4 July to 30 August various artists will show Corona-related works under the title ‘Into the Unknown’.

(2364 characters/SJ; translation by Margot M. Saar)

Events goetheanum.org/en, faust.jetzt Web www.junge-buehne.ch

Contact person Stefan Hasler, srmk@goetheanum.ch