Singer
Gestaltung: Philipp Schwinger | Live Schnitt: Jakob Pitzner
“Note the question mark.”
Karl Kraus’s unplayable drama “The Last Days of Mankind” becomes a musical reading with piano and voice.
“For Georg Nigl, the art song should always reflect the contradictions and danger zones of our time. Together with Nicholas Ofczarek and Vladimir Jurowski, he embarks in ‘The Last Days of Mankind?’ on an artistic adventure that unites Karl Kraus’s texts with the music of Gustav Mahler and Hanns Eisler — creations by three artists who, more than a century ago, viewed the daily life of war and its personal consequences as if under a magnifying glass. The unflinching sharpness of their gaze still chills us today...”
Program
The Last Days of Mankind?
Hanns Eisler / Bertolt Brecht
Ballad of the Water Wheel
Hanns Eisler / William Shakespeare
Horatio’s Monologue
Hanns Eisler / Friedrich Hölderlin
To Hope
Gustav Mahler / Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Primeval Light
Gustav Mahler / Des Knaben Wunderhorn
The Drummer Boy
Hanns Eisler / Bertolt Brecht
Saying 1939
Gustav Mahler / Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Where the Fair Trumpets Sound
Hanns Eisler / Kurt Tucholsky
The Trench
Dmitri Shostakovich
Prelude Op. 34/14 (piano solo)
Gustav Mahler / Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Reveille
Pete Seeger / Max Colpet
Where Have All the Flowers Gone
Hanns Eisler / Peter Altenberg
And Finally, Longing Dies After All
Singer
Pianist, Intendant of the Salzburg Festival
Actor
Conductor
An evening of rare intensity – book now.
When three exceptional artists come together – Georg Nigl, Nicholas Ofczarek, and Vladimir Jurowski – a work of art is created that will not be forgotten. “The Last Days of Mankind?” is not a concert in the traditional sense, but a passionate, poetic, and deeply moving reflection on war, hope, and dignity. Experience a work that moves, challenges, and endures.