Fresco (Stockhausen)
Wangenheim also wrote that he had heard about Stockhausen's Ensemble and Musik für ein Haus projects at Darmstadt in 1967 and 1968, implying that he hoped for something along the same lines.
[4] Conceptually, "instead of the usual chatter, the whole house, from cloakroom to auditorium seat right up until the entrance of the conductor, could already be filled with sound, so that the listener could begin listening, if he wanted, from the moment of entry, making his own selection from a timetable placed at the entrance giving details of the three programmes to take place simultaneously in the three auditoriums":[5] Live performances were given by Alfred Alings and Rolf Gehlhaar, tamtam (Hymnen, Prozession, Kurzwellen), Harald Bojé [de], electronium (Klavierstück VI, Hymnen, Prozession, Kurzwellen), Christoph Caskel, percussion (Refrain, Zyklus), the Collegium Vocale Köln (Stimmung), Péter Eötvös, piano (Hymnen, Kurzwellen), Johannes Fritsch, viola (Hymnen, Prozession, Kurzwellen), Aloys Kontarksky, piano (Klavierstücke I–V, VII–XI, Kontakte, Refrain, Prozession), Gisela Kontarsky, speaker (poetry and texts written by Stockhausen), Michael Vetter, recorder with short-wave radio (Spiral), and Stockhausen himself, on celesta (Refrain), as reader of his own poem, "San Francisco", and as sound projectionist in Hymnen, Prozession, Kurzwellen, and Stimmung.
This type of programming, called a Wandelkonzert ("promenade concert"), had been pioneered in Germany by Stockhausen in 1967 with a Darmstadt group-composition project titled Ensemble.
[6][7] For over a year, Stockhausen had been involved in planning the auditorium and programming for the German Pavilion at Expo '70 in Osaka, which would open on 14 March 1970.
[8]In the 1970s Stockhausen would return to this Wandelkonzert idea in Sternklang and Alphabet für Liège,[9] and much later in the final scene, Hoch-Zeiten, of the opera Sonntag aus Licht (1998–2003), as well as in his last work, the unfinished cycle of twenty-four chamber-music compositions Klang.
[10][11] The division of the four orchestral groups into foyer spaces separated by walls and by distance makes only portions of the music audible at any one location.
According to the score preface, the groups at the Beethovenhalle (including the conductors, who also played instruments) were arranged in rows in the following order: Knowing that there would be only three rehearsals, Stockhausen had deliberately written music that would be simple enough to be sight-read.
According to one news report Stockhausen, who was preparing for an upcoming four-day festival of his music in Lebanon, declined their request—a decision described by Wangenheim as "unwise".
The remaining musicians participated in the well-attended (about two thousand listeners) performance on 15 November but many only under protest, leaving a hand-painted placard in the warm-up room reading, "We are playing, otherwise we would be fired!".
The performance of FRESCO was completely wrecked by the orchestra, whose players made a lot of crazy nonsense, got drunk during their breaks, and finally handed over their instruments to members of the audience.
The whole thing ended up like a primitive student happening, whose actors were no longer really "with it"[15] During the performance, familiar excerpts from the standard repertoire, Rhenish folk songs, and the clatter of overturned ashtrays, beer bottles, and music stands filled the air of the foyer and corridors.
[14] Apart from the hecklers, some of the mainly young listeners in the audience (many of whom were schoolchildren) were not experienced in concert etiquette and made so much noise that Stockhausen and the performers frequently had to ask for quiet.
[16] Fresco was performed during a festival called Expozice nové hudby (Exposition of New Music) in Brno, Czech Republic in October 19, 2024 from 17:00 to 22:00 at Besední dům concert hall.
