‘Thou shalt not make unto thee any image. For an image restricts, limits, contains what should remain unlimited and unimaginable’ reads a choral piece by Arnold Schoenberg. Following a commission by the Wiener Festwochen, visual artist Ulla von Brandenburg teams up with actors, the Arnold Schoenberg Choir and musicians of the Klangforum Wien to stage seven vocal pieces by the exceptional composer at the Jugendstiltheater am Steinhof. Friede auf Erden (Peace on Earth) is a synaesthetic journey through architecture, colours and moods. A choir – a single entity comprised of many voices – affords a material form to the music and its multitude of sounds. Well versed in cultural history, yet playfully committed to the evanescent, Ulla von Brandenburg initiates a Gesamtkunstwerkas many different voices come together. A hint of utopian forms of community is sounded. For ‘art is not to produce mere beauty, but to raise questions, to intensify disharmonies and complexity.’

The production will be performed again on May 17, May 18 and May 19, 2022.

Text: Wiener Festwochen
Photo: Ulla von Brandenburg