Music of the time

This article deals with the concert series, for the series on contemporary music see Musik der Zeit (series) .

Musik der Zeit is a series of concerts by Westdeutscher Rundfunk ( WDR ) founded in 1951 .

History of origin

After the topping-out ceremony of the Wallrafplatz radio station was celebrated in February 1949, the large broadcasting hall located in it was presented to the public for the first time as part of 8 broadcasting halls in August 1950. When it was officially opened on October 19, 1951, it was the first large concert hall in Cologne; today around 60 concerts are held there every year.

Music of the Time came into being at a time when contemporary music production was being given new podiums by the radio stations. The Munich musica viva had already started; The new work started in Hamburg (NWDR) in 1951, followed shortly afterwards in Stuttgart and Berlin with Music of Our Time (SDR 1954), Music of the Present (SFB 1955) and the Pro musica nova festival (1961) at Radio Bremen . In France, the Domaine Musical concert series was launched in 1954, independently of radio .

Hasso Wolf was the presenter of the series from the beginning until his retirement in July 1991.

Opening concert

On October 8, 1951, Igor Stravinsky conducted the opening concert in the large broadcasting hall with the German premiere of his wind symphony . That was the beginning of the concert series Musik der Zeit in the large broadcasting hall. Until 1953 it was entitled "Concerts for New Music". As part of this series there were important performances, such as the world premiere of Karlheinz Stockhausen's “Gesang der Jünglinge” on May 30, 1956, Stockhausen's “Groups for 3 Orchestras” on March 24, 1958 or world premieres by Hans Werner Henze and Bernd Alois Zimmermann on November 27, 1958.

Well over 500 world premieres have taken place in the concerts since then, including milestones in the music of the 20th century .

Artistic director

• Erich Winkler (1951–53)
• Karl O. Koch (1953–55)
• Eigel Kruttge (1955–57)
• Otto Tomek (1957-71)
• Wolfgang Becker (1972-97)
• Harry Vogt (employee since 1991, head since 1997)

bibliography

• Music from the period 1951-2001. 50 years of new music in WDR. Essays - Memories - Documentation . Edited by Frank Hilberg and Harry Vogt. Hofheim 2002, Wolke Verlag. ISBN 3923997981 . Contains 2 CDs with first publications of commissioned works and world premieres.