THOMAS QUASTHOFF & AMATIS TRIO

Thomas Quasthoff and the Amatis Trio bring a very special program to the Palais im Großen Garten: in words and music, »Humanity in War« explores the consequences of war and its effects on humans. Historiography often reduces wars to a collection of statistics, obscuring personal fates and stories. During World War I, paper and pen were often the only means of staying in touch with faraway loved ones. Based on letters carried by the »Feldpost«, the military postal service, an incredible number of which – 30 billion – were sent on the German side alone, Quasthoff and the Amatis Trio try to identify humanity in wartimes and illuminate the personal struggles of the people behind the statistics. Together with works of the (late) romantic period and modernism, the letters and diaries reveal the most important aspects of compassion, impressively demonstrating that mutual respect, esteem and a sense of dignity – even among enemies – are the essential pillars of our community.

THOMAS QUASTHOFFRECITATION

AMATIS TRIO:
LEA HAUSMANN VIOLIN
SAMUEL SHEPHERD CELLO
MENGJIE HAN PIANO

»Humanity in War«
Reading from World War I letters and diaries by soldiers and their families
Music by Rebecca Clarke, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Fritz Kreisler, Dmitri Shostakovich, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann and Anton Webern