Utopische Visionen Und Visionäre Kunst: Beethovens 'Geistiges Reich' - Revisited 1

March 15-17,2017, Vienna, AustriaHosted by the Internationales Forschungszentrum Kulturwissenschaften-Kunstuniversitat Linz in Wien (IFK), the Musik und Kunst Privatuniversitat der Stadt Wien (MUK), and the Wien Museum, with support from the Musikwissenschaftliches Institut der Unversitat Wien and Wien KulturIn an undated letter to Johann Nepomuk Kanka written during the autumn of 1814, Beethoven declared: "...von unsern Monarchen etc der Monarchien etc schreibe ich ihnen nichts, die Zeitungen berichten ihnen alles-mir ist das geistige Reich das liebste, und der Oberste aller geistigen und weldichen Monarchien..." (...ofour monarchs etc. and the monarchies etc. I write nothing, the newspapers report everything-for me the empire of the spirit is the one I prefer; it stands above all worldly and spiritual monarchies...).2 The declaration clearly indicates his disenchantment with the politics of restoration, as well as a certain weariness with those in charge. It also suggests his readiness to assume the mande that E.T.A. Hoffmann had prepared for him a few years earlier in his review of the Fifth Symphony. For our purposes, the declaration served as a point of departure to explore Beethovens position in the cultural and political conditions that obtained in the wake of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars and to re-examine the composer s aesthetic principles, his working methods, and the music they produced.3 Organized by William Kinderman (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), the bilingual (German/English) meeting brought together specialists, scholars, and practitioners with a broad range of divergent perspectives from Europe and North America: music theorists found themselves hob-knobbing with musicologists; cultural historians exchanged views with performers and museum curators. Encounters of this sort risk becoming methodological towers of Babel in which the affordances of one knowledge base or skill set become the impediments of another. Thanks in part to Kindermans remarkable ability to navigate potential pitfalls and discursive culs-de-sac, the meeting generated robust exchanges of ideas that spilled out of sessions, irrigating vigorous discussion at coffee breaks, on the way to lunch, and at dinners. Overall, the meeting provided the sort of experience one hopes for when attending such events. The participants must also heartily thank Daniela Losenicki and her team from the IFK for their excellent organization and flawless management of local arrangements.On Wednesday evening (March 15) participants gathered at the Wien Museum. Following opening remarks by Matti Bunzl (Wien Museum), Thomas Macho (IFK) and Franz Patay (MUK), William Kinderman introduced the keynote speaker, Sir John Eliot Gardiner. In a wide-ranging conversation with Kinderman, the founder of the Monteverdi Choir, the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique explored Beethovens empire of the spirit from the perspective of the performer. Gardiner cited musical experiences from the podiums of rehearsal and concert halls to take his audience into the sound of Beethovens music, noting traces of French Revolutionary songs, as well as the influence of Johann Sebastian Bach, as he went along.The next morning, we met at the Internationales Forschungszentrum Kulturwissenschaften. Hans-Joachim Hinrichsen (Universitat Zurich) began the first session by asking whether and to what extent it is possible to reconstruct Beethoven s aesthetic creed against the intellectual horizons of his time and place. Does the current tendency to associate him with idealist philosophy and the heroic phase of German culture match with documentary evidence, or have we constructed a Beethoven to fit our needs ? In answering these questions, Hinrichsen outlined the difficulties inherent in this kind of endeavor. Manfred Osten, longstanding diplomat in the German Foreign Service and former General Secretary of the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung, followed with a reevaluation of Goethes understanding of Beethoven and his music. …