Beat Furrer

Beat Furrer

Born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, in 1954.
 
In 1960, he started taking piano lessons at the Schaffhausen Conservatory. In 1975, he moved to Vienna where he trained and found international success. He won an award at the ‘Young Generation in Europe’ composition competition which took place in Cologne, Venice and Paris in 1984. In 1985, after studying at the Vienna School of Music and the Performing Arts under Roman Haubenstock-Ramati (composition) and Otmar Suitner (conducting), he founded the ‘Klangforum Wien’ Ensemble of which he has since been a conductor. Furthermore, he served as the Ensemble’s artistic director until 1992.
 
Commissioned by the Vienna State Opera, Beat Furrer wrote his first opera, “Die Blinden”, which premiered in 1989 at the Wien Modern festival. He won another award at the Young Composers Forum in Cologne that same year. In 1993, he received the Music Prize of the City of Duisburg. Beat Furrer's second opera, “Narcissus”, premiered at the steirischer herbst festival in Graz in 1994. His concerto for two pianos, “Nuun”, had its highly acclaimed premiere at the Salzburg Festival in 1996. In 2001, the concert performance of his opera “Begehren” premiered at the steirischer herbst festival. In 2003, the first staged performance of that opera took place in Graz. He won the Music Prize of the city of Vienna in 2004. In 2006, he was awarded the Golden Lion for “Fama” at the Venice Biennale.
 
Beat Furrer has been professor of composition at the Graz University of Music and Dramatic Arts since 1991 and since 2005 he has been appointed member of the Academy of the Arts, Berlin. He lives in Kritzendorf near Vienna. 

XENOS I-IV
because I, ever since the sun, when the wind that always blows, had backed, that the sand fell at the side, windless, has risen, that the day dawned and breaks, in the light you as you me and see again, I see, whilst, how, how I see, always your brow, the eyes, mouth, hair, neck and your shoulders, breast and arms, your hands breathe, as hands, breast and arms, your shoulders and the neck, hair and mouth, the eyes, your brow still breathe, that you, whilst, perspiration on everything, brow and eyes, mouth and hair, neck, the shoulders, arms, breast and hands are breathing, will go in the next hour, as I see, ever since the wind, that always blows, had backed, that the sand fell at the side, windless (Beat Furrer)


Desert Book
The desert is a place of strangeness. It is symbol of an inconceivable emptiness; metaphor for death, nothingness and time and again projection space for the fear of losing one’s memory. Many authors have dealt with the phenomenon “desert” in their texts. Ingeborg Bachmann’s “Wüstenbuch-Fragmente” [fragments of a desert book] which form part of her “Todesarten-Projekt” [manners of death project] are impressive examples of their kind. Beat Furrer and Händl Klaus have incorporated them partially into the draft text of their new piece for  music theatre. Other important ingredients of the libretto are a new text written by Händl Klaus, as well as poems by Angel Valente, Nazim Hikmet and the ancient Egyptian papyrus 3024 in which an unknown author writes about his longing for death. The papyrus text is used in a new translation by Jan Assmann who collected a great number of texts concerning death and dying in his book “Death and the Afterlife in Egypt” which caused quite a sensation, as an important contribution to the research on the ancient Egyptian’s relationship to death, their simultaneous ritual celebration of death and vital life energy. (Theater Basel)
deutsch | home | © 2009