«Emanzipieren Sie Ihr Orchester!»
Stage music for the Brecht premieres in Switzerland
Joachim Lucchesi
During the second world war three theatre plays by Bertold Brecht were created in Switzerland: Mother Courage and her children, The Good Person of Sichuan and Life of Galileo, which were staged in the years 1941 and 1943 in a renowned Zürich theatre. Despite the critical attention that these performances received, the specifics of the stage music are still largely unclear: Paul Burkhard, who composed the Courage music, and especially Huldreich Georg Früh, the creator of the Sichuan piece, remain for the most part unknown to the present day. In this study unpublished material will be released, mostly relating to Burkhard, his music and his relationship to Brecht.
