2023 Darmstädter Ferienkurse

Abstract

There’s a quasi-review of Darmstadt in The New York Times, where a critic-at-large – I forget who, the authorship function isn’t important here and I’m not going back to check – ferries himself between Bayreuth and Hesse’s fourth city, ultimately deciding that the Darmstadt composers – here Jennifer Walshe and Matthew Shlomowitz – have outdone poor RichardW. for sheer spectacle and conceptual punch. It’s framed like a lark, a typical Eurotrip, but I think it’s interesting nevertheless. Why would an anglophone critic do this, bringing together Bayreuth and Darmstadt? They have nothing in common besides people playing some music, which they do in many places this time of year; also they are both in Germany. [excerpt]