The European cultural heritage, divided into intangible and material, has been experiencing a renaissance in the last years. Young people discover crumbling architectural monuments and are committed to restoring and revitalizing them. Others discover forgotten composers, poets and painters and shine a new light on them. Recently, there has been an increasing number of young artists who are rediscovering composers, digging up their scores from archives, often contacting the descendants of these composers to find out more about these works: then they try to integrate these works into their programs, documenting them and making professional sound recordings. In this way, they seek cooperation with state institutions to promote these projects and with radio broadcasters for the sound recording and distribution of these works. The Society Ars Augusta e.V. and Eleni Ioannidou also contributed in this spirit to the rediscovery of the music: for example of the composer Anna Teichmüller, in collaboration with the composer's descendant, Mr. Sven Alexis Fischer, who will also be a visitor in the audience in this edition of the competition, and is among the sponsors of the competition. Bolko von Hochberg's work was also rediscovered in 2018 (European Sharing Heritage) especially his songs. The discovery of Bolko von Hochberg prompted the further discovery of his chamber music. Some years later, his quartets were heard on German radio (Deutschlandfunk).
The Ars Augusta Society discovered a manuscript of the song cycle "Song of Sappho" by Mathilde Kralik von Meyerswalden in 2022 and integrated it into the competition's repertoire. Since then, these songs have appeared several times in the concerts of participants, such as the Greek soprano Georgia Tryfona. The third prize winner of the 2022 Lied Competition, Remy Burnens and Clémence Hirt, will interpret some songs by the Zittau Romantic composer Heinrich Marschner for the first time in the Museum of Romanticism in Dresden in November 2024.
Operas from the region's cultural heritage could be also rediscovered and a first revival was staged. Often some jubilee, like 100, 200 or 300 years since the premiere of the work can be a good opportunity for a rediscovery. As example, the opera "Giove in Argo" by Antonio Lotti, written in 1719 for Dresden, revived 2019 for the 300-years since the Planetenfeste in Dresden or the opera "Issipile" based on a beautiful Metastasio libretto, written in 1732 for Breslau by the unknown Venetian composer and singer Antonio Bioni. This was the first and only opera of the composer revived internationally, in cooperation with the Opera House of Stettin.
In 2025 our region will celebrate 350 years since the death of the important baroque composer Andreas Hammerschmidt, named also "Zittauer Orpheus". This is a good opportunity to rediscover a large number of the composer's madrigals. The association will integrate some finalists or semi-finalists of the competition into this project. And the journey of rediscovering our rich, forgotten cultural heritage continues. We encourage all musicians who enter the competition to continue this work and also explore and rediscover the local cultural heritage of their homeland. We would be happy to welcome any of these initiatives and help with the promotion.
But in addition to the immaterial cultural heritage such as music, there is also material cultural heritage such as the enormous wealth of architectural monuments that have been decaying in Europe for many years. Artists in particular have an eye for this decay. Photographers and film makers from all over the world discover the dozens of theaters, concert halls, abandoned castles and churches in ruins across Europe (lost places). An example is the report on the over 30 dilapidated opera houses and theaters in Italy, photographed by Dimitri Bourriau, which was reported in an article in Stern in October 2023.
Sad about the fate of lost beauty, these artists take photos of the monuments and report on their fate on their digital platforms. That was also the fate of a very special monument of our region Silesia, the former Protestant church in the small village of Giersdorf (today Żeliszówin Poland), discovered 12 years ago by the filmmaker Patryk Kizny, who made a short film "The Chapel". The film stirred international interest in the ruins of this classicist oval church, which turned out to be designed by the famous architect Karl Langhans, the architect of the Bradenburg Gate and the Royal Theater in Berlin. This inspired two young people to take over the ruins in year 2012 and with a lot of idealism and they have been slowly but inexorably trying to renovate it. They founded a non-profit foundation, the Foundation “Your Heritage” (Fundacja Twoje Dziedzictwo). The Ars Augusta Society works trans-nationally with the Polish foundation to fill this monument with music and help in its revitalization. Music is a driving force for a Renaissance, it is no coincidence that we call the theme of the competition this year "Orpheus: Spirit of the Renaissance". We are convinced that Music and Theater can breathe new life into these crumbling but particularly important monuments. In year 2023 we were able to host an opera (Gian Battista Pergolesi's "Serva padrona") and an oratorio (Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf's "Davide") in this beautiful hall. In year 2024 we would like to organize the concert of some of the winners of the competition in the same hall: as occasion we choose September 22nd, and want to integrate ist part in the European Days of Cultural Heritage 2024.
But now we come to the most important architectural object that our competition aims to bring about its renaissance. This is the Stadthalle Görlitz, the place where the semifinals and finals of this competition will take place. In contrast to the Dom Kultury, which was a museum before the war, the Upper Lusatian Memorial Hall (in honor of Emperors Wilhelm I and II) and after the war the Center for Culture of the small town of Zgorzelec, Stadthalle Görlitz stopped functioning in 2005. It is a huge concert hall, built in 1910 by Bolko von Hochberg to host an important regional festival "the Silesian Music Festival". The stage is designed for approximately 1000 musicians. A beautiful organ from the Sauer company dominates this stage and is still functional. The hall is designed for 1,700 visitors and has incredible acoustics for music and especially for singing. Even the quietest sounds can be heard anywhere.
Behind the large hall in the building there is also a small hall, exactly where our competition will take place. This miracle of concert hall is located right on the bridge that connects Poland and Germany, having thus a big potential for both countries and is slowly falling apart because the small town Görlitz sees no perspectives for such a building. In addition, the required renovation for such a large monument has very high costs. There were even been plans to demolish it. Initiatives such as the Bolko von Hochberg Lied competition have the purpose of confronting the forces of destruction and the forgotten and opening up new paths to the Renaissance for this important cultural heritage. The musicians who will take part in the 2nd International Song Competition are in this way carriers of this spirit of the Renaissance. Each one of them is an Orpheus who invokes the spirit of renewal with his singing.
Indeed a big renovation of the building will begin very soon, at the end of year 2024 and will last until 2029.
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