Kairos presents Dr. Futurity by Bernd Richard Deutsch. Dr. Futurity for 16 instruments is the last and most complex of three works that were written in immediate succession (the other two works are Mad Dog and the 2nd String Quartet) and— to conceptual, musical and dramaturgical similarities—could be united to form a triptych. The new piece is divided into three movements: I. ...trip – from Mars to here II. Chimaera III. Red Alert! Although the character of the score is often orchestral, several instruments are set in a soloistic manner: in the first movement the piano, in the second movement the double bass and the oboe d‘amore, and in the tempestuous finale—most clearly exposed—the accordion. Reading numerous novels and short stories by the US-American science fiction author Philip K. Dick (1928–1984), with the amazing visions and dystopias described therein, may have had an inspiring influence on the composer while composing this piece.
24 musicians from ten different countries represent an artistic idea and a personal approach that aims to restore to their art something that seems to have been lost - gradually, almost inadvertently - during the course of the 20th century, which gives their music a place in the present and in the midst of the community for which it was written and for whom it is crying out to be heard. Ever since its first concert, which the ensemble played under its erstwhile name “Societé de l’Art Acoustique” under the baton of its founder Beat Furrer at the Palais Liechtenstein, Klangforum Wien has written musical history. The ensemble has premiered roughly 500 new pieces by composers from three continents, giving a voice to the notes for the first time. It could - if given to introspection - look back on a discography of over 70 CDs, a series of honours and prizes and around 2000 appearances in the premier concert houses and opera venues in Europe, the Americas and Japan, for renowned festivals as well as youthful and idealistic initiatives. Over the years, strong artistic and affectionate links have developed with outstanding composers, conductors, soloists, directors and dedicated programmers.
These have been influential in forming Klangforum’s profile, just as the ensemble has played an important part in forming and supporting the shape of their endeavours. During the last few years, individual members and the ensemble as a whole have made increasing efforts to pass on special techniques and forms of musical expression to a new generation of instrumentalists and composers. And from 2009, owing to a teaching assignment at the University of Performing Arts Graz, Klangforum Wien as a whole could style itself “professor”. All of this would remain purely superficial, if it didn’t have its base in the monthly assemblies of all the ensemble’s musicians and the constantly redefined artistic will of a collective for which music, finally, is nothing less than an expression of their ethos and awareness of their own share of responsibility for the present and future.
And just as in their art, Klangforum Wien itself is nothing but a force, barely disguised by its metier, to improve the world. The moment they step onto the podium, the musicians know that only one thing counts: everything. Eros and the absoluteness of this conviction are at the root of the inimitable quality of their concerts.
