ABSTRACT
From 19 November 1962 to 22 February 1963, the well-known music critic and eminent authority on contemporary music Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt hosted a series of 12 lectures given by some of the day’s most respected composers. These were broadcast live by the Sender Freies Berlin (SFB – Radio Free Berlin) from the Congress Centre in Berlin on consecutive Monday nights at 6 pm. The title of the series was Musik im technischen Zeitalter, and Ligeti was Stuckenschmidt’s last guest, on 22 February 1963. This historical lecture took place at a time when ‘elite’ new music was still backed by benevolent political forces, when there was still an ‘excessive support for this small group’. It may be difficult for us to fathom how what was then and still is today a niche became the powerful post-war musical avant-garde of Darmstadt and Cologne. For those of us who were fortunate enough to witness the unique charm of Ligeti’s labyrinthine talks in later years, this film will come as a sudden reminder of how endearing and entertaining he could be. For others, it will be an incomparable discovery.
