“Immortal Beloved” - Beethoven and the women
Concept & Recitation: Chris Pichler
Music: TrioVanBeethoven: excerpts from the piano trios and piano sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven
This special Beethoven - evening not only shows the composer's musical highlights, but also the passionate man and unhappy lover behind them.
According to his childhood friend Franz Gerhard Wegeler, Beethoven was "always in love" and made conquests "that would have been very difficult for some Adonis". Many of his "love objects" were nobles, and while he believed he had inner nobility himself, his rank stood in the way of a befitting connection. Some of these women were his piano students, some patrons, many musicians, often already engaged or married. And so all these relationships had one thing in common: starting with Eleonore von Breuning, via Therese Malfatti, Julie Guicciardi , Antonie Brentano, Josephine Brunswick and Marie Gräfin von Erdödy to the mysterious "immortal beloved", to whom Beethoven revealed his innermost being in a three-part letter - they were "impossible" and partly platonic - letters were exchanged, but not the ring. A permanent relationship or even marriage was denied to him.
Nevertheless, he was allowed to give the women what they were willing to accept: his music.
He therefore dedicated important works to many of them. These interweave with the letter - passages to a very personal homage to the master.
ME – Arthur Schnitzler
Concept & Recitation: Chris Pichler
Music: TrioVanBeethoven: excerpts from the piano trios by Debussy, Brahms und Zemlinsky
»Until that day he had been a completely normal person.« Arthur Schnitzler's novella, written in 1927, begins with these words: Mr. Huber, a satisfied family man and department head in a department store, organizes his life in a pleasant routine - until that walk in the green, when he sees the entrance to a park tagged with this very word »park«. Everyone seems to know what it is about - yet it is precisely because of this that the connection between language and the world begins to dissolve for him. Everything becomes unsure, uncertain and insufficient to Mr. Huber, he starts to question, measure and finally to label his surroundings. And shouldn't he also label himself at the end?
Chris Pichler
Chris Pichler has a diverse character role repertoire, from classic to modern. She has received several awards and also appears as an ensemble actress at renowned German-speaking stages and festivals: Berliner Ensemble, Schauspiel Frankfurt, Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen, Staatsoper Berlin, Theater in der Josefstadt, Musikverein Wien, Konzerthaus Wien, Schauspiel Dortmund, Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Styriarte, Festspiele Reichenau, Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar, Internationale Maifestspiele, Hans Otto Theater Potsdam, Volkstheater Wien, Art Festival Weimar, Salzkammergut Festwochen Gmunden, Meininger Staatsheater, Schlossparktheater Berlin, Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Altonale Hamburg, Staatstheater Kassel, Wean Hean Festival.
Her expressive solo programs, which focus on women of contemporary history, are celebrated by audiences and critics throughout Europe. First and foremost Romy Schneider – Two Faces of a Woman, with whom she has been successfully appearing at theaters and festivals in Germany and abroad for a decade.
With I - Marilyn and Sissi goes Elisabeth - Empress of Hearts, she received the highest recognition on renowned stages, and for Jackie she received the Capital of Culture - Award. Other monologues about Frau Schnaps – Beethoven's housekeeper, Marie Antoinette, Chrysothemis, Molly Bloom, (from: Ulysses by James Joyce) can be found in her repertoire.
She develops musical biopics, among others: Cosima Wagner, Casanova, Mozart's women, Lady Gaga, Clara Schumann, Queen Christina of Sweden, the golden age around Elisabeth, the Sun King, climate concerts....
Her first direction - the baroque opera La Giuditta by Alessandro Scarlatti - achieved great success at the Hessisches Staatstheater in Wiesbaden.
She also writes libretti: Die Computermaus, Puss in Boots, Lillipizz - the little Lipizzaner (commissioned by Musikverein Wien, U.A. 2020), designs music productions, children's concerts, etc. in the Berlin State Opera, at Jeunesse and Wiener Musikverein.
Her readings are staged theater evenings, the versions of which she creates herself.
She is known to the viewers from numerous cinema and television productions, the listeners know her distinctive voice from many productions of German-speaking radio stations as well as from numerous award-winning features, audio books and radio plays.
She appears in live radio plays, such as in the Hollywood On Air trilogy (Konzerthaus Wien, Bar Jeder Vernunft).
Chris Pichler has an extensive song repertoire, from the Wiener Lied to the Dreigroschenoper, from Marilyn Monroe songs to chansons from the 20s and 30s.
After a 5-year teaching assignment, she now works as a senior lecturer in the acting department at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.
