Composer Beat Furrer

“Only an open garden remains in bloom”

Beat Furrer is celebrating his 70th birthday today in the List Hall in Graz

(Bild: David Furrer)

Composer Beat Furrer celebrates his 70th birthday today. A conversation about the celebratory concert in the Helmut-List-Halle in Graz and the new and old in music.

Mr. Furrer, the celebratory concert is taking place in Graz and not in Vienna, where you co-founded the Klangforum. How did this come about?
I had been planning a project with the Schallfeld ensemble and Cantando Admont for some time. Schallfeld then approached me with the idea of the concert. As I enjoy working with younger ensembles, I was happy to agree. The members of Schallfeld all studied on the PPCM course, so there's another connection to Klangforum

You are connected to Graz not least through your professorship at the University of Music and Performing Arts. What has changed here in 30 years?
I can remember making the pilgrimage to musikprotokoll in Graz back in the 1980s. There are always ups and downs, but you have to fight to keep something alive. Where there is good humus, it will always blossom.

How important was it for you to pass on your knowledge?
Very important. I wasn't sure at first whether I wanted to teach. But I realized that it was essential to find a language for what I do in dialogue with the students. The fact that they decided to give me the professorship as a young composer was a great stroke of luck.

(Bild: MARKUS SEPPERER)

We are currently meeting at the concert rehearsals. In addition to your own pieces, you will also be performing Monteverdi.
This is Cantando Admont's birthday present to me. I've had the privilege of working with this ensemble for a long time, which combines early and new music with such energy. I consider this venture to be very important for the sound development of a vocal ensemble in particular. It creates a basis that also fills the new with a completely different sense of sound.

Why are there still so many reservations about new music?
This is actually an indictment of a society that is afraid of the future. A garden cannot remain flourishing if it is not open. Otherwise, one day even Mozart will no longer be able to tell us anything. There is a traditionalism that has a suffocating effect. But perhaps music also has a harder time here because it speaks to us so directly. We are virtually at its mercy. You have to be ready for that.