Neue Zürcher Zeitung 30.08.2007

Felix Philipp Ingold presents the long-lost travel journal of Andre Malraux's "Carnet d'U.R.S.S.," which has now been published in French. Ingold writes of the first all-Soviet writer's congress in 1934, at which Malraux held a speech: "In his position paper of August 23, Andre Malraux adopts the Stalinist definition of the writer's role as 'engineer of the soul.' However he does not content himself with quoting the all-powerful party boss, but rather takes the freedom to, discreetly and blatantly at once, invert its meaning. 'If the writer is the engineer of the soul, then we mustn't forget that the engineer's prime task is to invent. Art is not subordination – it is conquest and victory.' And even the central aesthetic postulates of Soviet realism, the 'reflection of reality' put Malraux at odds with Leo Tolstoy's command to replace 'imitation with discovery'. 'Great literature does not come to being by photographing a great epoch,' said Malraux."


Süddeutsche Zeitung 30.08.2007

Music critic Joachim Kaiser is of two minds about the concerts given on Monday and Tuesday by the Berliner Philharmoniker under Simon Rattle at the Salzburg Festival. "Rattle's triumph was the following burlesque. It was sheer virtuosity, and funny to boot. Not even Leonard Bernstein could have handled the concluding stretta passage like that. In the adagio finale, Rattle avoided obvious comparisons with Bruckner with his wonderfully flowery, yes even sensually Wagnerian understanding of Mahler's melodies," Kaiser writes about the orchestra's performance of Mahler's 9th Symphony. Unfortunately the second evening ("an admixture of Brahms, Schumann, Ligeti and Stravinski") forced Kaiser to rethink his praise. "Wasn't the Berliner Philharmoniker once the best Brahms orchestra in the world? (...) Not any more. Their 'Tragic Overture' is unspecific, even somewhat extroverted. The chords lack inner tension and archaic weight. And anyone who appreciated Stravinsky's 1945 'Symphony in Three Movements' as a violent document of horror has another thing coming. In 2007 in Salzburg, the piece is puffed up, imperial, monumental. Could have been by Ottorino Respighi. Film music."


Die Welt 30.08.2007

Peter Dittmar is full of admiration for the works of master cabinet makers Abraham and David Roentgen, exhibited in three shows in Berlin, Nuremberg and Neuwied to mark the death of David Roentgen 200 years ago. "In 1776, Prince Carl Alexander von Lothringen paid one thousand ducats for a richly inlaid three-metre high cabinet from the workshop of Abraham and David Roentgen. For the same price he could have purchased a stately manor and park.... Their sheer beauty and utter perfection make these pieces one of the most important chapters of 18th century craftsmanship. They incorporated and renewed contemporary styles ranging from simple bourgeois tastes to luxurious classicism. And in so doing they blended distinctly contrasting tendencies: religious tolerance and patriarchal austerity, technical finesse and the division of labour common to manufacturing, extreme modesty and demonstrative luxury, local roots and cosmopolitanism."

Manual Brug talks with one of world's leading young conductors, the 28-year-old Latvian Andris Nelsons, about rumours he may be the successor to Renato Palumbo at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, where has has already done some work. "Yes, you can certainly see right away when the chemistry's right, and Puccini and Wagner are good ways of finding out if you and an orchestra can work together. So I can definitely say: we can. The musicians were extremely supportive. I've already been invited again in 2009 for a production of 'Eugene Onegin.' I'm a real fan of the German repertoire system. The many different performances allow spontaneity on the night of the show, and all of a sudden, unexpected flights can occur. That's the very best thing that can happen: when things suddenly take off, when everyone surpasses themselves. I could certainly see myself at the Deutsche Oper. But on the other hand I'm at a stage where I've got so much to learn myself."


Die Tageszeitung 30.08.2007

Barbara Mürdter visits the newly opened International Slavery Museum in Liverpool, which pays particular attention to the resistance by slaves. "An important point of discussion is left out: the role of black tribal leaders who traded their own people for European wares. Presenting these facts in their historical correctness would have taken the wind out of the sails of those who simply want to relativise European guilt."


Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 30.08.2007

In Germany, a federal court has ordered a retrial of the "honour killing" of Hatun Sürücü (more). In the first trial, the victim's underage brother was found guilty of the killing while her two older brothers were acquitted. Necla Kelek writes: "Never before has the difference between an archaic culture dominated by religion and a modern society been as obvious as it has become through this case. Everyone knew that the trial was not just about a murder: the three shots exposed the well-meant turning of a blind eye that resulted from opposing societal structures as a deadly form of tolerance. For too long such crimes were treated as family tragedies or the result of attacks of jealousy. Or the actions of the accused were explained away by saying that their different cultural backgrounds justified their crimes." (More by Kelek here)