Listening into Open Musical Sources

Interview: Martin Riegler

You once said that with Ausklang you want to 'gather music between village and world.' What do you mean by that?

Our motto is the interplay between village and world. Erl is a very special place because people from all over the world stay in this village time and again; it is so to speak predestined for our festival. We investigate the interplay between so-called 'high culture' with everything that is understood as 'popular culture': every kind of 'folk music', from jazz to pop to world music. We play program items in many different musical languages that don't take place one after the other, but are combined with the greatest element of surprise. For example, we divert from a Schubert sonata into a jazz improvisation, and then comes a pop song by Tom Waits, played on an electric guitar and a theremin. There are the most incredible twists, that's what's special about the festival.

What criteria do you use to select the artistic collaborators?

First of all, Ausklang celebrates the fact that there are so many wonderful musicians in the world. And the compilation of the program is also a question of feeling: Where do we find – from the sequence of musical colors – something surprising that seemingly doesn't fit together, but ultimately results in a successful sequence. My task as curator is to perfectly mix these colors.

What can we expect this year?

We start with the Quatuor Modigliani, one of the most famous string quartets, which shares the stage with Shuteen Erdenebaatar, a jazz pianist from Mongolia who has been living in Munich for five years and won the BMW Welt Young Artist Jazz Award in 2022. Also joining is Franz Posch, whom one knows from the show Mei liabste Weis, with the Styrian accordion. You only hear such a combination with us!

There are "fixed starters" who perform more often.

There are some artists who accompany us over all three days. First of all, Franui as the "timekeeper". We play pieces every evening that you only get to hear in this form at Ausklang. On the first evening we perform together with the multi-percussionist Vivi Vassileva, she is seen as the legitimate successor to Martin Grubinger; also joining is Holger Falk, a singer from Regensburg who has presented an incredible complete recording of Hanns Eisler's songs. The particularly versatile and interesting pianist Herbert Schuch is also there every day, he accompanies Holger Falk at the beginning.

What follows on day two?

It starts again with the Quatuor Modigliani. Also performing is the theremin player Pamelia Stickney, together with Peter Rom on electric guitar. This is a fascinating duo that can both translate choral music by Messiaen to this extraordinary instrumentation and the already mentioned pop song. We also have Max Joseph, four young Bavarian musicians in the line-up violin, guitar, tuba and harmonica, who play something like 'New Folk Music' very touchingly and authentically. I also invited Julian Prégardien, one of the most outstanding Schubert singers of the present. He creates a program with Franui and Herbert Schuch.

For the finale, a prominent actress is also a guest.

On the third evening we first have three wonderful soloists on stage: Valerie Fritsch, a young Tyrolean cellist who is currently succeeding as a 'Rising Star' in Europe. Then David Bergmüller, an exciting lutenist who expands the lute sound with electronics. The third soloist is Herbert Schuch, after he has been heard mainly as a song accompanist for two days. We are also very much looking forward to Caroline Peters, one of the most famous contemporary actresses, with whom Franui will work together for the first time. The festival finale is performed by the Jazzrausch Bigband, a great formation from Munich. It will be sweaty and wild, and things will really get going.

There are many styles involved. Does theoretically every kind of music fit into the Ausklang festival?

The format is deliberately open, that's what makes it fun and exciting. I don't want to exclude anything from the start. Ausklang is not a crossover story, but so to speak 'Open Source': They are all open sources. Together with the audience, we take the freedom to listen everywhere. That's something wonderful, I think.

Ausklang, October 2-4, 2025, Festspielhaus Erl