II International Festival for Contemporary Music MOSCOW FORUM “Retrospektive-Perspektive“: Russia-Germany 1945-1995

1995, Rakhmaninov hall of the Moscow conservatory

The second Forum – the Russian-German one – was dedicated to the 50th anniversary over the victory over Nazism and, consequently, the main idea of this festival was to present the music from our two countries written during the previous few decades. On this festival, in all likelihood, for the first time during the previous half a century the music of contemporary German composers was performed on the same programs together with music by Russian composers, including those of the wartime generation.

Today, almost twenty years later it is quite hard to believe that in those years the idea of such a juxtaposition at times aroused a profound lack of understanding even from very respectable and authoritative musicians. At that time Russian performers presented the audiences for the first time with performances of landmark compositions by such bright artistic antagonists as Helmut Lachenmann and Hans Werner Henze. The great cycle of Klavierstucken by Karlheinz Stockhausen was performed at the Rakhmaninoff Hall. The culmination of this festival was formed by the concerts of the brilliant Ensemble Modern, including its joint concert with the Studio for Music in the Grand Hall of the Conservatory.

Partner: Goethe-Institut in Moscow