Ensemble Aventure: ‘DADA-Remix’

In this concert, you will encounter music that the Dadaists might have wished for – or might never quite have dared to create.

Ensemble Aventure, Anne-May Krüger

Programme
Hans Heusser (1892–1942) “Piano Pieces” (c. 1916–1919) — approx. 10'
Ilona Perger (b. 1992) “New Work” — (2026) — approx. 10–12'
Friedemann Treiber (b. 1971) Hommage au quintette pour piano de Hans Heusser (2026) — approx. 10–12'
Jalalu-Kalvert Nelson (b. 1951) “No. 5.”  text by Hans Arp (2026) — approx. 10–12'
Irene Galindo Quero (b. 1985) “New Work” (2026) — approx. 10–12'

Musicians taking part:
Phoebe Bognár, flute
Andrea Nagy, clarinet
Nicholas Reed, percussion
Akiko Okabe, piano
Friedemann Treiber, violin
Miho Kawai, viola
Ellen Fallowfield, cello
Anne-May Krüger, mezzo-soprano

Other contributors
Ilona Perger, composition
Irene Galindo Quero, composition
Friedemann Treiber, composition
Jalalu-Kalver Nelson, composition


What was actually heard at the Zurich Dada Soirees? The common narrative goes like this: a group of radical artists gathered in neutral Switzerland in the midst of the First World War, provoked the bourgeoisie and shook the art world to its core. It’s a good story. It’s just not entirely accurate.

Unlike the texts, the music at the Zurich soirées was surprisingly tame. The audience applauded. Only the last of the eight soirées ended in turmoil, triggered not by music but by the texts. The most frequently performed composer of the Zurich Dada movement, Hans Heusser, subsequently faded quietly into the world of brass band music and remained silent in public about his Dada years for the rest of his life. The supposedly internationalist movement unashamedly drew on the music and dance of the African continent. And the women, who made a significant contribution to the movement, were scarcely mentioned in the subsequent narrative.

DADA-Remix confronts these contradictions, without reverence, but with curiosity. Ilona Perger’s new work *dein Mund voll Lilienseife* (Your mouth full of lily soap) takes its cue from Hugo Ball’s diagnosis: ‘Language is corrupt.’ The sound poem was a response to the propaganda of the war in 1916. Perger asks whether this still holds true today, and whether artistic consequences other than those drawn by Ball are possible. Jalalu-Kalvert Nelson takes up a poem by Hans Arp and searches within it for what language leaves behind when one no longer trusts it. Friedemann Treiber writes a tribute to Heusser’s piano quintet, which was never performed at the last soirée because the audience had already erupted into commotion beforehand. Alongside this, Heusser’s forgotten piano works are rediscovered, and a new version of the simultaneous poem *Sous les ponts de Paris* is imagined.