Von Hendrik Lasch
Vor 70 Jahren wurde Olivier Messiaens
Dr. Albrecht Goetze before the board at Stalag VIIIa in Zgorzelec
photo: Pawel Sosnowski
This is certainly not a place for musical enjoyment. Last remains of snow between birch trees are in the small wooded area on the southern edge of the Polish border town of Zgorzelec, and the wind blows cold towards Neisse. Only an elderly couple, their heads held low between the shoulders, followed by his dog the mud. 70 years ago, musical performances were at this point, however, much less feasible. Where trees grow arrested today, were lined up the barracks of Stalag VIIIa, one opened in 1939 by the National Socialists POW camp where Polish, French and Belgian, and later Italian and Soviet soldiers were sometimes cruel conditions. 120 000 men passed through the camp until the war ended, thousands froze to death, died from disease or abuse. Many were buried behind the barbed wire fence.
Ironically, this place of horror went down in music history. On the evening of 15 January of 1941 the over 400 prisoners and guards in barracks 27b der so genannten Theaterbaracke, eine Komposition mit dem Titel »Quartett auf das Ende der Zeit« aufgeführt. Geschrieben hatte sie einer der Insassen des Lagers: der 1939 als Soldat eingezogene und im Mai 1940 in das Stalag VIIIa verlegte französische Komponist Olivier Messiaen. Trotz der widrigen Umstände seiner Entstehung und trotz der Inspirationsquelle, der biblischen Offenbarung des Johannes, ist das »Quatuor pour le fin de temps« keine apokalyptische Komposition; beschrieben wird sie vielmehr als »farbenreiches wie friedvolles Werk der Anbetung und Ekstase«. Einer der neben Messiaen am damaligen Konzert beteiligten Musiker, der Cellist und Mithäftling Etienne Pasquier , described the scene.
"Out: Night, Snow," misery, he recalled: "Here. Wonder a"
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is "miracle a word that is also used Albrecht Goetze often. A miracle it is like how a trained theater director who had worked in Hamburg and Vienna, then the false glory of the stage world weary was, and learned a metal work on Messiaen's work came: He began to compose and from a friend the score of "Quatuor "receive. In the last line he read a note: "Completed in Stalag VIIIa in Görlitz, Silesia, in January 1941 «. Goetze, a year born after the premiere in Leipzig Belas, are discovered and as a story that a writer could hardly have been more impressive can devise. In Messiaen's piece is "the unity of place, time and action," an important stylistic device of the theater, has led to grotesque perfection, says former theater husband: "It is an impossible concert in an impossible time was in an impossible place,"
Messiaen, a teacher by Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen, is considered the greatest organ composer of the 20th Century
Photo: epd-bild
On this Saturday evening is the "quartet at the place" of his Enste Hung, listed again as if in a completely different time. Goetze organized for the fourth time in a 15th January, a concert to be held in the grove on the outskirts of Zgorzelec - in a tent. Until it could happen, however, several other "miracles" were necessary, but first a decision. In November 2001, Goetz had gone to Gorlitz, to see for themselves where Olivier Messiaen had written his piece. He was disappointed. "No one had a Stalag VIIIa" is the first in East Berlin, who joined the war as Zgorzelec to Poland, pointed to him the way to the suburbs. On the way back Goetze decided, from now to want to live on the Neisse River, "where such music was born, I wanted to spend my life and compose"
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This left it Goetze, however.. After he had earned for living costs money necessary from time to time even with a job creation as a music teacher at Görlitz Theatre - in his previous directorial work of course, conceal - he designed the concept for a "Meeting Point Messiaen," a meeting and cultural , the at the source of the "Quartet" to be built. This way can the memory be preserved in the work - and the message it conveys: The piece shows how "People a terrible situation, thanks to the music survived," says Goetze. Messiaen, he notes, was in contrast with Dmitri Shostakovich with the "Leningrad Symphony" no triumphant victory music written. Nevertheless, he can not, despite the camps, despite coercion, fear and insecurity, and put off further composed. "Such inner strength," says Goetz, "overcomes even dictatorships."
Since he is in Görlitz to the memory of Messiaen and his "quartet," cares Goetze learns that he had not been given the only one such symbolic power. Especially in Poland, he was not only to open doors, but often literally on open arms: at a historian who researched in part against fierce resistance, the history of the Stalag, but also for officials. The head of the municipal administration Zgorzelec presented to the Meeting Point ado, the site of the former Stalag available, although the area was near the border already identified as lucrative land. Similarly, open-minded, if not enthusiastically responded many musicians. The renowned Warsaw Philharmonic Antoni Wit under came to benefit concerts to Görlitz and Zgorzelec, the Dresden Staatskapelle took over the sponsorship of the meeting point. Her concert playwright Tobias says precipitation, the "quartet was" not only one the "big chamber music works," 20th Century, its origins also show how in the "extreme emotional situation of the prison camp, the power of the mind have defied all odds." As the meeting point remember, he adds, is a "symbol for the peaceful integration of Europe."
The end of the score with origin
Photo: Meeting Point Messiaen
not only at Dresdner Star Orchestra, which played in August, a concert for the meeting points in the beautiful Art Nouveau department store from Görlitz, estimate the by Goetze, developed and championed by not stifling energy inspiring idea, especially for children and young Messiaen and his "Quartet" for the music and its power. The Meeting Point, supported by a newly founded association organized international work camps, organized music projects and history workshops. Soon a school of art and music from Liberec Messiaen will write poems to music. That sounds ambitious, but when told they would get serious and passionate about the "Quartet" and his story, "children understand immediately what" mean this music and this place, "says Goetze. He has witnessed this when he was still working at the theater and a kindergarten for children Mussorgski begeisterte, und eigentlich habe er es selbst schon als Kind erfahren. »Ich wurde mit allen meinen Verrücktheiten ernst genommen«, sagt er: »So etwas stabilisiert ungemein.«
Als Verrücktheiten scheinen in so mancher Amtsstube freilich Goetzes Pläne für den Meetingpoint wahrgenommen zu werden. Anders ist jedenfalls kaum zu erklären, dass ein Vorhaben, das Musiker und Dirigenten von Rang wie Antoni Wit oder Myung-Whun Chung in Begeisterung versetzt, nur ein derart bescheidenes Auskommen hat. Die Bundeskulturstiftung fördert den Meetingpoint; auch der Kulturraum Lausitz gibt etwas Geld. Dennoch sind die Mittel mehr als begrenzt; für Goetze und seine Mitstreiter »reicht it, "not even a small allowance. Recently was indeed at least a shop to be rented, a fixed domicile, the center has not.
Although there are plans by noted architect Ruairi O'Brien for three buildings on the site Stalag , but when ever that may be available to implement the necessary money is not in sight. After all: Last year's plans in the presence of Saxony's Minister Arts in Brussels were presented. were also in the municipal elections in Zgorzelec, all mayoral candidates known to the Meeting Point, says Goetze. In Görlitz he waits to such support so far in vain.
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Auch die Konzerte zum Jubiläum der Uraufführung sind stets ein finanzieller Kraftakt; auch vor dem 70. Jahrestag wusste Goetze lange nicht, wie er die Miete für das Zelt bezahlen sollte. Wer das höchst anspruchsvolle »Quatuor« spielen würde, stand indes seit langem fest: Inzwischen fragen gefeierte Solisten bei Goetze an; teils sagen sie hochkarätige Auftritte ab, um bei der Aufführung im Zelt dabeisein zu dürfen. Auch die Zuhörerreihen werden trotz umständlicher Anfahrt und der auch im beheizten Zelt spürbaren Kälte wieder gefüllt sein, »zu mindestens einem Drittel« mit Kindern und Jugendlichen, so Goetze. Sie werden die Virtuosität und Schönheit einer Komposition erleben, über der Etienne Pasquier, der Cellist der denkwürdigen Uraufführung im Januar 1941, einst alles Elend der Welt vergaß. Solche Musik, schrieb er, »trägt uns hinweg von dieser schrecklichen Erde«.
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