»Lob der Torheit«

Commemorative years entail their own idiosyncrasies. When a Goethe commemorative year was proclaimed in 1949, the »tongue-in-cheek wise man from Weimar, as well as the ‘quixotic’ and satirist Goethe […] got a raw deal« in the eyes of Bernd Alois Zimmermann. With his »burlesque cantata« for coloratura soprano, precentor, bass, mixed choir and orchestra, Zimmermann himself worked against this image. Premiered by the Gürzenich-Orchester conducted by Günter Wand, the work juxtaposes the cheerful on a par with the serious. At the same time, it provides a new perspective on Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s early work, in which, besides his great role model Stravinsky, a closeness to Kurt Weill and Carl Orff becomes palpable. This contribution to the Zimmermann year is framed by two special choral works: Igor Stravinsky’s extraordinarily orchestrated »Symphony of Psalms« and Francis Poulenc’s »Stabat mater«, in which the speed of the alternation in expression between a solemn mood and high spirits is maintained.