Concert: The Best of All Worlds (Opening Concert)

39th DAVOS FESTIVAL – young artists in concert.

MUSIC | CLASSICAL MUSIC

"We live in the best of all worlds," proclaims the tutor in Voltaire's novel Candide. And the naïve young man believes every word his master utters. Natural disasters, injustices and grievances follow. Candide experiences the world with all its horrors, and he has more and more doubts about the message of "the best of all possible worlds". The philosophy of optimism collides with brutal reality. How much optimism does a person need to process and endure terrible news? Optimism as an excuse not to have to face reality, or as a desperately needed form of resilience?

For a long time, America was considered the idealized dreamland that lured people into the best of all possible worlds with unlimited opportunities, rags-to-riches careers and green cards. But this façade has been crumbling for some time. Political developments also show that humanity is not continuously developing for the better, but that regression is possible and justice is a fragile state.

Works and ideas pointing to the future have always been controversially discussed. Leo Ornstein said: "At my second concert, which was dedicated to my own compositions, I could have played anything. I didn't hear myself at the piano. The crowd whistled and hooted and even threw objects onto the stage." His compositions are a mad attempt to break away from old conventions, to shake up the audience and thus pave the way for utopian thoughts.

Olga Neuwirth, on the other hand, deals with the pandemic present with her works entitled coronAtion. She describes her feelings as an artist in quarantine. Io son ferito ahimè – I'm unfortunately injured – truly not the best of all worlds.

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All information, the whole program: https://davosfestival.ch/festival/die-beste-aller-welten-01/