“Radio music” is a fairly unique phenomenon: Once the newly-created German broadcasting companies realised that their listeners were not the same as the “classical” concert audiences, steeped in tradition and just as willing to listen as they were to be pleased, they began experimenting. Composers representing every known style and then some were commissioned to produce works for the casual listener that could be transmitted using a single microphone — Paul Hindemith, Eduard Künneke, Kurt Weill, Franz Schreker, Walter Braunfels, to name a few. As with so much else, the Third Reich put an end to this also, murdering many of these composers and driving the rest away.
Fortunately, conductor Erich Theis is infusing these forgotten masterpieces with new life, and in October, he guides baritone Dominik Köninger and the Bochum Symphony as they revive more works from this forgotten genre.
Bochum Symphony
BoSy Fokus — Radiomusiken – Voices facing the microphone
Kurt Weill: “Das Berliner Requiem”
Edmund Nick: “Leben in dieser Zeit”
Wilhelm Grosz: “Bänkel und Balladen”
Dominik Köninger: baritone
Oct. 6th