Experiencing freedom with Beethoven
"The Kuss Quartet, one of the most renowned chamber music ensembles, and Nico and the Navigators, one of the most important free music theatre collectives from Berlin, take on Beethoven's late works together within the SWR Festival. There is no need to fear that the music will be superficially illustrated by the actors of the free group. Rather, the performers "relate" to the music as if they were partners at eye level. Director Nicola Hümpel, who founded the theatre collective in 1998, invented this kind of staged concert and made it her trademark. Dance, movement and videos are elements that distinguish her works. Classically trained musicians who get involved in a collaboration with Hümpel leave the familiar ground of the concert podium: they too move freely on stage and thus have to play the works by heart. [...]
But the director also encounters the composers anew again and again in the intensive confrontation with the music. "For me it was surprising how sincerely human and touching these works are, beyond the usual titanic clichés. Some passages are heard quite differently today than they were two years ago - and in the face of external constraints, one thinks anew about inner freedom." / Nicola Hümpel [...]".