Kurt Masur's 91st birthday: Google Doodle pays homage to a German orchestra conductor

L If we juxtapose images of the generation of drivers next to each other, which belonged to Kurt Masur, who died in 2015, one thing immediately catches the eye. Masur never holds a stick in his hand. Unlike almost all his colleagues. Masur made music only with his bare hands. A small flared finger, a long index finger, that's how often his right hand is. As he wanted to hold something gently, without breaking it, his left hand appears.

Kurt Masur, whom Google honors with a scribble at his 91st birthday on Wednesday, stands out among the leaders of recent decades. But not only because he gave up the reproduction rod very early – of course, Google gave up the figure of a staff. But because he is remembered not only as an exceptional artist, but also as a highly political person. On the decisive days of the peaceful revolution of October and November 1989, he played a key role

at that time, Masur was chief conductor of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. This is not a body of his. The Gewandhaus Orchestra is the oldest orchestra in Germany, which has not emerged from a court orchestra. The citizens made this orchestra. It is the result of an independent spirit, of an artistic sense that made Leipzig the musical capital of Europe in the 19th century before Vienna. No musician who thought anything about Leipzig has pbaded. It was precisely this orchestra.

A Citizens House for Citizens

Citizens first removed the old Gewandhaus from their orchestra and made it the first concert hall. Later, a new pompous Gewandhaus was built, it was in the immediate vicinity of the Federal Administrative Court of today. It was a building that was a model. Others have copied this house, in Boston, for example, this building is still in principle today.

In Leipzig, however, this is no longer the case. Damaged in the war, it lets the SED state expire and not renovate. He was initially secure. But the old house was probably a symbol of submerged upper middle clbad society. This society should not and did not want to revive the communists, so they also eliminated their damaged symbols. Leipzig has not been able to save its Gewandhausruine over time, unlike Dresden, which defended the ruins of Semperoper until the GDR was ready in the 1980s for restoration.

Gewandhaus Leipzig is at the beginning of this phase of recollection. However, it remained the only concert hall built by the GDR. Otherwise, a multifunctional room rather built. Masur campaigned early for a new home for his orchestra. Since 1970 he was Gewandhaus Kapellmeister. It remained so until 1997. These long terms are hardly conceivable today, after ten, 15 years, drivers usually continue. Masur could have done it too: he was considered a sign by the GDR and allowed to travel. From this importance Masur hit the capital. He threatened to give in if the GDR did not build a house for his orchestra. He prevailed.

Masur had a democratic house built in the GDR

Masur defied the GDR from the Gewandhaus today, right in the center of Leipzig, on Augustusplatz. In addition, in a figure reminiscent of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, with its terraced structure, the visionary building, democratically described by Hans Scharoun, who, in the early sixties, was almost brazenly placed directly against the zonal border . In 1981, the Gewandhaus orchestra, this urban institution, settles in the central square of the city. Masur directed Beethoven's Ninth. On the left side of the square, the musicians saluted the relief with Karl Marx's monster head at the university. Marx is gone now, the Gewandhaus is still there. His uninterrupted radiance.

Masur was constantly looking around the building site during construction. He was sure from the beginning: it will be an excellent house. And indeed, despite the economy of scarcity, the Leipzig Gewandhaus has become an acoustically sensational concert hall. The construction workers paid homage to Masur by putting his footprints in the concrete. The print should be hidden somewhere under the podium of the orchestra. We can not see it, it probably belongs to the myths.

The Masur myth undoubtedly belongs to 9 October 1989. The day that the probably decisive demonstration on Monday pbaded through the city center, Kurt Masur was one of the six main inhabitants of Leipzig. who wrote the call "No violence!". The call was read several times during the demonstration. He remained peaceful. In December, Masur became the first honorary citizen of Leipzig after the fall of the Berlin Wall

Masur is also known as a political artist because of this work in the GDR As a figure who admonishes that art and artists can not and should not shirk their political responsibility to the day the day at key moments A debate on this topic would make the cast of conductor today.The drivers on a trip, somehow without place, seem politically inviolable.That the leader of the 39 Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Valery Gergiev, is a friend of Putin and a supporter of his politics in Crimea – not so important. the head of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel, is from Venezuela, a country that is disappearing – not so important. Masur showed that you can interfere, get involved. And that we can always remain one thing: an exceptional musician.