Also: “The Culture Week” – from 9:05 a.m. on ORF 2
Vienna (OTS) – “It’s all a waltz!” will be the motto once again at the Vienna State Opera on February 8, 2024. The “matinee” on Sunday, February 4th, at 9:05 a.m. on ORF 2 will get your audience in the mood for the 66th Opera Ball with tango sounds (from 8:15 p.m. live on ORF 2 and 3sat) and will show “Astor Piazzolla – Tango Nuevo” a portrait of the reinventor of the Argentine national dance. Afterwards, the ORF cultural morning presented by Clarissa Stadler puts the spotlight on an artist who has been ignored by the art world for far too long with the film “Later Triumph – Renate Bertlmann” (10 a.m.). Her exhibition entitled “Fragile Obsessions” opens at Belvedere 21 at the end of March. At the end of the “matinee” “The Culture Week” (10.45 a.m.) with current reports and tips is on the program.
„Astor Piazzolla – Tango Nuevo“ (9.05 Uhr)
The fact that tango, a formerly disreputable music of brothels and arcades, has made its way into international concert halls is largely thanks to one man: the composer and musician Astor Piazzolla. He broke with the rules of traditional tango and incorporated influences from jazz, klezmer and classical into innovative music, which was initially sharply criticized by the purists of his native Argentina. Today, almost 32 years after Piazzolla’s death, these very breaks in style are enthusiastically celebrated all over the world. The sensitively told documentary by Daniel Rosenfeld shows the crucial stages in the life and work of the bandoneon player and composer. The focus is on Piazzolla’s interpretations and the music of the so-called Tango Nuevo, which he significantly developed.
Born in Buenos Aires in 1921 as the son of Italian immigrants, Astor Piazzolla grew up in New York, where the music of Harlem, his father’s old tango records and his Bach-playing neighbor influenced the musical boy from an early age. Browsing through the Piazzollas’ photo and film archive not only highlights his musical career, but also provides intimate insights into his family life. A special treasure is the previously unpublished conversations with his daughter Diana. In touching images and accompanied by stirring tango nuevo sounds, the film paints an impressive picture of a complex personality who is now one of the most outstanding composers of the 20th century.
“Late Triumph – Renate Bertlmann” (10:00 a.m.)
Renate Bertlmann is a pioneer of Austrian performance art. For decades her work was ignored by local galleries and museums. Now her works can be seen in major international museums and are fetching top prices. Since the 1960s, she has worked persistently and undeterred on her topics such as love, sexuality and gender roles. Some men felt offended by their subversive, ironic and “shameless” revelations of traditional role models. In 2017 she received the Austrian State Prize. In her documentary “Later Triumph,” director Susanne Riegler looks at a woman who dedicated herself to feminist art with passion and humor.
Renate Bertlmann was the first woman in the more than 100-year history of Austria’s participation in the Venice Biennale to be allowed to host a solo show in the Austria Pavilion. At the 58th Venice Biennale, the artist presented a rose garden with 312 Murano glass roses with a sharp blade protruding from them in the pavilion’s courtyard. As a sign of love, but also of resistance: “I defend myself, I am resistant, I will not put up with anything anymore,” says Renate Bertlmann in the film portrait with a passionate undertone.
Reinhold Bertlmann, who has been married to the artist for more than 50 years, as a quantum physicist has an unerring view of her work. It was clear to him that it would have to come out explosively: “Like a semi-permeable membrane where the molecular pressure becomes too high,” said the physicist.
Essential to Renate Bertlmann’s success on the international art market was the collecting activity of Gabriele Schor, director of the “Verbund Collection”, who was one of the first to buy works by Bertlmann. The art historian and Biennale curator Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein and Stella Rollig, director of the Belvedere, also talk about the artist’s art historical significance as a key protagonist of the “feminist avant-garde”.