All the members of the European Union espouse the common value of fair and efficient cooperation, which in turn involves smooth communication on as equal a footing as possible in business, politics, the arts and the EU institutions. The large linguistic communities, whose languages are often learned as foreign languages, also have particular interests....
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Die Zeit, 14.06.2006
Talking with Christof Siemes, Nobel Prize winner Günter Grass points out that Peter Handke would not have been an unworthy laureate of the Heinrich Heine Prize (more here). "Heine – like Goethe too, by the way – remained a fan of Napoleon until his death. The horror and the terror
that Napoleon spread, how he used up his armies on the way to Russia –
all of that was of no consequence for his admirers. Heine runs equally
afoul of today's criteria whereby Handke is condemned for his
absurd, one-sided support for Serbia... Handke has always tended to
adopt the most nonsensical arguments and counter-positions. But what I
dislike about the current discussion is the double standard, as if you
could grant writers the right to err as a special kind of favour. The writer Botho
Strauss said something along these lines (text in German here)... I have a hard time with granting
writers a kind of bonus for geniuses which excuses their partisanship for the worst and most dangerous nonsense."
In an interview with Hanno Rauterberg, Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid talks about her volcanic temperament, Babylonian history and her fondness for Russian 20th-century avant-garde:
"In fact their ideas have never been tried out. At the time people were
hoping for a new beginning. The idea was to create a new type of
architecture, one that would free itself from all constraints and put
everything in question. Do buildings have to stand on the ground? Can
they also float in the air? What is a wall? What is a floor? Do
we have to follow the dictates of the right angle, or can we also use
the remaining 359 degrees?"
Die Welt, 14.06.2006
Poland prepares to play Germany tonight and Polish author Wojciech
Kuczok is heavy of heart: "It is sad to be a Pole in this World Cup. It
is a nightmare to have to face the fact that we play the worst
football in the world... Perhaps Poles can't play football because they
don't see it as a game. How can you attack from the wings, when the
attack could fail and look like a parody of a Polish cavalry attack;
how can you risk a shot on goal when a miss would undermine the memory
of the efforts of the Polish airmen in the Royal Air Force. The Germans
are hardly masters of national self-irony either. But instead of
staggering about the pitch, their heads obscured in the clouds of
historical liabilites, they shoot wonderful goals."
Süddeutsche Zeitung, 14.06.2006
In summer 2009, theatre director and now manager of Zurich's Schauspielhaus Matthias Hartmann will become the new director of the
Viennese Burgtheater, reports Christopher Schmidt. "For the then 46-year-old
Matthias Hartmann, the change will represent an interim break in his
unprecedented vertical flight. And all those who see him as a smart
careerist and an obliging theatre CEO, 'the man who does things
properly' and 'a success consignee' will feel proven right yet again. And indeed his productions do sometimes feel like
investor art, speculation objects geared towards the tastes of the day,
with their mix of volatile stylistics and craftsmanship that will
retain its value. Since he succeeded in doubling audience numbers in
the theatre in Bochum, Harmann's value on the transfer market has moved
up into the priceless range."
Die Tageszeitung, 14.06.2006
After airing his grievances in an interview with the German TV channel
ARD at the lack of compensation for people affected by the
construction of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River, the Chinese
farmer Fu Xiancai was beaten up so badly that he could be paralysed
for life. Andreas Cichowicz, the chief editor responsible for the programme, emphasises
that the activist insisted on his name being named. "We did warn Mr Fu
that this might cause him problems. But we assumed these would take
the form of reprisals by the authorities. I hope for my part that the
authorities will now offer Mr Fu and his family all conceivable help –
because that is their duty." In his commentary on the case, Beijing correspondent
Georg Blume is pessimistic. "The truth is that the chances of helping
Fu using public pressure from the outside are extremely poor."
Die Welt, 14.06.2006
Conductor Ricardo Muti speaks
with Kai Luehrs-Kaiser about life after the Scala, a key musical
experience with the pianist Svjatoslav Richter and his new love for Neapolitan baroque music:
"I grew up in Naples, where Piccini, Paisiello, Fiordarati, Pergolesi
and Traetta lived and worked. Their works are not all masterpieces, but
maybe some of them are. Near Naples there's a monastery to which Alessandro
Scarlatti bequeathed most of his musical scores. For centuries his
works have been hidden there by the priests. Perhaps my name has helped open these doors. I want to rediscover the sound of the Neapolitan baroque music."
Frankfurter Rundschau, 14.06.2006
The debut title "Softrock" may sound a tad naive, but Berlin-based Australian singer Justine Electra is one to look out for, writes
Elke Buhr. "You have to listen very closely to hear all the finesse
this album has to offer. On the one hand you're taken into an intimate,
authentic space where you're alone with Justine Electra's voice, at
times as soft as a whisper and at times loftily resplendent. You hear
the soft squeaking of her fingers on the guitar neck when she changes
chords, and you think of all the sirens of this world, from Tori Amos to Heather Nova.
But in fact the romanticising guitar is looped, and in a clever,
self-reflective gesture the nostalgic hissing sounds give way for
example to a small noise orgy."
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