Reading Berthold Seliger (DE) - “Klassikkampf”
Jan 11th 2018, 8 pm

Even the glamorous opening of the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie could not cover up the deep crisis of classical music: it is frozen in the ritual, the repertoire remains conventional and concert visits often only serve the elite need of distinction. Meanwhile, the music companies are trying to fight declining sales with relaxation CDs for stressed-out managers and the clean staging of violin playing beauties. But despite this pandering, the alienation of classical music from the masses of people continues on and on - who would dare today to dream that the so-called underclass could find their happiness in classical music?

In the face of this misery of serious music, Berthold Seliger, “Germany's most eloquent concert agent” (Berliner Zeitung), calls for a new class struggle for the suppressed potential of music. He casts a knowledgeable look behind the scenes of today's classical music scene and recalls with verve that, contrary to today's despondency and flattening, Mozart, Beethoven, Eisler and Abbado always focus on the revolutionizing of beauty and thus of real social conditions took aim. It was about nothing less than progress and luck.