NEWS & VIEWS:
German Classic Poetry Readings in MoscowWho had the idea first? Probably Sergei Lavrentiev, programming director of the »Faces of Love« International Film Festival (8 - 18 March 2004) in Moscow. He surmised that since actress Dorothea Moritz would be attending the festival as the accredited publisher-editor of KINO German Film & International Reports, why not make fuller use of the opportunity and grace the Moscow public with her popular readings of German poets? Wolfgang Meissner, director of the Goethe-Institut Moscow, agreed and an invitation followed from Iwan Uspenskij at the German Cultural Institute. Would she read from the poetry of Goethe and Fontane for the general public at the brand new Turgenev Library? And would she add Rainer Maria Rilke and Hermann Hesse to her repertory in another performance in the Österreichische Bibliothek at the Moscow State Linguistic University (MGLU), this time for students, teachers, devotees, and aficionados of classic German poets?
The only question was how to gear the performances to an eager listening public, for whom poetry does indeed nourish the soul. The »Turgenev Performance« featured background stories and anecdotes about the lives and writings of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Theodor Fontane. A week later, following a meeting with Stephan Walter at the Deutsches Zentrum, it was decided that the »MGLU Performance« Goethe, Fontane, Rilke, Hesse be accompanied by Vera Sershantova on the guitar and Stanislav Boronin on the accordion. The thirst for more in the overflow audience in the Austrian Library could hardly be quenched. »When will you read again in Moscow?« Dorothea Moritz responded without a moment’s hesitation: »2005 Friedrich von Schiller im Schiller-Jahr!«
Dorothea Moritz: »Glücklich allein ist die Seele, die liebt.« (Goethe)
PROGRAMM MGLU PERFORMANCE (17 April 2004):
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832): Der Osterspaziergang
Theodor Fontane (1819 - 1898): Frühling
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Natur und Kunst
Theodor Fontane: Trost
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926):
Die Erblindende
Der Panther
Das Karussell
Hermann Hesse (1877 - 1962):
Im Nebel
Alle Tode
Valse brillant
Stufen
Further info: Iwan Uspenskij, Leiter der Bibliothek, and Andrea Bach, Goethe Institut Moskau