Carolin Emcke & Anja Lechner

"My texts," Carolin Emcke once said, "should be so delicate that they can stand up to simplification." A sentence that anyone who uses language as an instrument should frame and hang above their desk. However, the award-winning journalist also has skills that come before writing: looking and listening carefully. You notice this when you read her remarkable reports and essays, which reveal the connection between violence and climate, for example. Not much needs to be said about Anja Lechner, especially at this festival: The cellist is simply an authority in the borderland of baroque, new music and improvisation. A few years ago, she collaborated with Emcke to create a musical program to accompany her book "Gegen den Hass", consisting of works by Silvestrov, Bach and free playing. In its stirring totality, it unfortunately fits our times eerily well. And that is precisely why it needs to be heard.