Nike Wagner: 'Music doesn't exist in a vacuum'

DW: "Revolutions" is this year's festival motto - a theme that is both historic and topical. What we are currently seeing in many parts of the world are counter-revolutions. What approach are you taking to the subject?

Nike Wagner: "Revolutions" is in fact a loaded term and somewhat imprecise, particularly because it is occupied by the far right. But traditionally, revolutions are leftist, grass-roots movements that come from the people - not from dictators, military elites or stone-age religious activists.

To diffuse the word's current ambivalence, I chose not to use the color red in the illustration of the motto, opting instead for a green background - symbolizing springtime and hope - together with a historic image: "Liberté" by the painter Delacroix, also titled "The People Lead Freedom." The painting from the year 1830 is a reference to the French Revolution.

Do you have revolutionary content in this year's festival program?

We're exploring it from two angles: social revolutions and artistic revolutions. The two often go together, but not always.

We're staging a number of works that fomented revolutions in music - by Beethoven of course, but also by composers like Debussy, Stravinsky and Luigi Nono.

Then there are those works of music that are a direct reaction to social revolutions in European history. First, the French Revolution with its ideals of freedom, equality and fraternity that influenced Beethoven throughout his life. We'll be presenting important works from that era, including Etienne-Nicolas Méhul's "Coronation Mass for Napoleon" - and Beethoven's "Eroica," a radical, extreme work in many ways.

The Russian Revolution also produced a flood of music. The Ural Philharmonic Orchestra is coming to perform Prokofiev's stupendous "Cantata Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the October Revolution." And there's a program that reflects on a modern-day revolution, the Arab Spring. In the field of modern dance, Lucinda Childs symbolizes revolutionary social transformation in the US in the late 60s, and she will be on hand with her famous minimalist, abstract piece called "Dance."

I get the impression that in every work you schedule, you give thought to its relevance, its non-musical connotations, and its historical and social aspects. Is that so?

In general, yes, I do. Music - and art altogether - doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's always connected to society, even if that connection has often been ignored or disputed over the years. But of course, every work of art has its sphere of existence and its own power.

Beethoven's Third Symphony, the "Eroica," features strongly in your lineup this year …

The "Eroica" signaled a radical departure in music history. It's completely different from the First and Second Symphonies. There's a strong connection to the major works of the day that celebrated the French Revolution. Funeral marches for the heroes and casualties of the Revolution were common at that time, and the second movement of the "Eroica" is a dirge.

Apart from that, Napoleon - the original dedicatee - was always a historic figure of great interest to the composer. He secretly identified with him: Napoleon, the great man in politics, and he, Beethoven, the great man in music.

Bonn's city council has decided that the Beethoven Hall concert house will undergo a complete restoration beginning in October 2016. The renovation is to be completed within two years, and in the interim, the hall will be closed down. Some have been skeptical about the schedule, doubting whether work will be finished in by 2020, which marks the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven's birth. Until then, what guides you in planning, as far as available venues go?

Hope! As far as I know, the city is going to great lengths to ensure that everything will be finished within the window of opportunity. Otherwise, the Beethoven anniversary will be a fiasco. Everybody knows that, so they're putting things on fast-track. In the meantime, we have the World Conference Center in Bonn for the big symphonic performances. OK, a conference center is and remains a conference center, no two ways about it. We'll have to see what can be done. Initial impressions - the Beethoven orchestra gave a trial performance there - didn't sound as bad as we'd feared. But we're still fighting to have the acoustics improved.

Does all this throw a spanner into the works for the seasons leading up to the anniversary year?

For the time being, I'm scheduling things as though I had every hall in the world to choose from. We'll have to see what can be done. But in fact, I think the concert hall issue is the most serious problem for a festival based in Bonn. No picturesque former industrial sites around, no medium-sized, modular hall... but of course, the Beethoven city is still young, so lots can happen.