Catch the Piano Fever

The Kulturforum comes alive with Klavierfieber, a week-long festival linking art works in the Neue Nationalgalerie, the Alte Nationalgalerie, the Pergamonmuseum and the Neues Museum with compositions for the piano inspired by them. Klavierfieber brings together six works of art, six young composers and six international pianists. 

The concept is a novel one: the link between art and music is not intended to be merely decorative. Six composers were commissioned to create pieces for the piano, taking their inspiration directly from a painting or sculpture. The results are intriguing: Jens Joneleit (his opera Metanoia was premiered at the Staatsoper's opening at the Schiller Theater last year) created Schnitt ("Cuts"), using a Dada-ist composition form inspired by Hannah Höchs's Dada Collage; and the Danish-German composer Nils Eichberg presents his Nefertiti, to be performed by the brilliant 20-something Russian pianist Denis Kozhukin, who is making waves at all the top European competitions.

Compared to the large music/art festivals with long traditions in Berlin -- the Tanz im August, the Musikfest in September, the Art Forum in October, the Jazzfest in November -- Klavierfieber is diminutive: six evening and lunch/teatime concerts, six pianists, composers and works of art. But it has a special significance for Berlin cultural life. If the Klavierfieber proves infectious, it will rejuvenate the Kulturforum.


Klavierfieber is supported by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and Young Euro Classic. It takes place  between Monday, June 20, and Sunday, June 26 in the Kulturforum -- in the museums as well as in the Staatsbibliothek (State Library) and the St Matthäuskirche (St. Matthew's Church). 
The English page of the festival web site is here.