LOOK INTO THE FUTURE Festival goes beyond the music in Burghausen

Being able to organise such a cross-border, interdisciplinary festival must feel brilliant for the two Kreusch brothers, as pianist Cornelius Claudio Kreusch and guitarist Johannes Tonio Kreusch are already interested in many things, which they impressively demonstrate by organising various concert series. This open view of culture is also wonderfully reflected in their LOOK INTO THE FUTURE festival, which they launched in 2018 together with the cultural office of the city of Burghausen. After all, music of different colours meets film, dance and visual arts in the old Upper Bavarian ducal town.

What is important to the two busy festival organisers at this four-day event are the discussion rounds with the participating artists. The press spokesman of the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Tom R. Schulz, does a wonderful job of really bringing the artists closer to the interested audience, including private statements from those who have just performed. On the very first evening, in the dreamlike ambience of the Red Hall in the Raitenhaslach Monastery, one learns from the lutenist and guitarist Edin Karamazov how he approaches music, what he thinks of improvising and also of his collaboration with world star Sting. The choice of the Bosnian to play at the opening couldn't have been better anyway, as he is the perfect musical interpreter of the festival's motto. First with Renaissance music on the archlute, then after a break with a look at more recent times on the concert guitar with pieces from Rachmaninoff to Leo Brouwer.

The listed monastery complex of Raitenhaslach, a few kilometres from Burghausen, is a perfect venue for such concerts. But exciting venues in Burghausen's old town are also included. For example, the Ankersaal, a magnificent old cinema from the 1950s. A silent film is always set to music there during the festival. This year, Simon Stockhausen had the mammoth task of adding new sounds to Fritz Lang's 160-minute science fiction adventure Woman in the Moon from 1929. He had never done anything like this before, Stockhausen admitted afterwards. Hard to believe, one would have wanted to reply. His improvised/composed soundtrack of saxophone, voices, percussion and live electronics not only amplified the full drama of the film, but also raised one of the last German silent films to a new, an exciting level.

Pianist Aki Takase shone in her solo concert with hard attacks on the black and white piano keys, with brute, rustic playing, but also a sense of playfulness and romance. What a great artist the little Japanese woman is. Whether she quotes foreign music in her own way or presents her own pieces. Her concerts are always full of surprises. This was also the case in Burghausen when, at the end of her performance, she suddenly brought the mezzo-soprano Mayumi Nakamura on stage and steered the musical events in the direction of opera.

What else was exciting at LOOK INTO THE FUTURE IV? Creative (step) dance with Tamango in a church, for example. Inspired by the wooden sculptures and a large installation made of barrier tape by Heiko Börner, the New York dancer moved through the exhibition in the church and amazed with his improvised movements and rhythms. And with their ‘Stubenjazz’, the band around trumpeter Michael T. Otto showed at the morning pint on the last day of the festival how cleverly old German songs can be dressed up in a sometimes slightly quirky, contemporary jazz garment.