Originally, the Ars Electronica Festival, which at that time was still part of the International Bruckner Festival Linz, was only meant to be a one-off spectacular opening. Never in their dreams did those responsible in 1979 imagine that it would develop into a lasting institution. And yet, just a few years later, the Klangwolke, Europe's largest and most spectacular opera-air production in public space, has become a real Linz landmark that has so far captivated more than three million people.
The initiator of the Klangwolke is considered to be Hannes Leopoldseder, the then director of the ORF regional studio in Upper Austria. Together with the Munich composer, director and sound architect Walter Haupt, he developed the idea, which initially consisted mainly of broadcasting music outdoors in order to reach a far larger number of people than would be possible in a concert hall. The leitmotif of their deliberations was the well-known and then much-cited demand of the German cultural politician Hilmar Hoffmann, "Culture for all". In Linz, however, they went one step further by encouraging the population to participate: the people of Linz placed their radios in the windows to immerse the whole city in a Klangwolke.
In the first year, the music, Bruckner's 8th Symphony, still came from the tape, in a recording by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam under Bernard Haitink. Just one year later, however, the Bruckner Orchestra Linz under Theodor Guschlbauer played Bruckner's 4th Symphony live. Low-threshold access, guaranteed by free admission, and the combination of tradition (classical music) and (technological) innovation have remained hallmarks of the Linz Klangwolke to this day.
Although the actual birth of the visualised Klangwolke did not take place until the mid-eighties, approaches to visualisation played an important role relatively early on, such as special light effects in 1980 and the "Linzer Funkenwolkenfeuer" a year later. After visual and scenic effects had become increasingly important, the organisers decided to hold two Klangwolken as part of the International Brucknerfest Linz from 1985 onwards: a Visualised Klangwolke, in which the music, regardless of genre, is only one means among others that contributes to the success of this multimedia synthesis of the arts, and a Classical Klangwolke, in which the focus is still on a classical concert.
The great pioneer of the Klangwolke in the early years was Walter Haupt, who designed it - with interruptions - until 1990. Later, it was mainly the stage designer and architect Hans Hoffer who further developed the visualisation. Other artists and artist groups were Airan Berg, Parov Stelar, Beda Percht, Hubert Lepka & Lawine Torrèn, Xailabs GmbH and the artist group Helix.
The first Visualised Klangwolke, for which Dietmar Kerschbaum was responsible as artistic director of the Brucknerhaus, was designed by the internationally renowned theatre collective La Fura dels Baus. In 2018, under the title PAX, it presented a multimedia and interactive show in which the history of mankind was staged as a dream-like visualisation.
One year later, in 2019, opera director and former artistic director of the Bregenz Festival David Pountney was responsible for the Visualised Klangwolke. For the 40th anniversary, he dealt with humanity's relationship to the sun under the title SOLAR, apocalypse and hope for a happy ending included.
Due to Corona, the Visualised Klangwolke could not take place as usual in the Donaupark in 2020. Instead, an artists' collective consisting of Peter Androsch, Sam Auinger, Wolfgang "Fadi" Dorninger and Gitti Vasicek partially moved to the internet and, under the title Sounding Linz, traced the diverse sounds of the city in order to make its inhabitants newly aware of them and able to hear them anew.
In 2021, the Visualised Klangwolke took place again in front of an audience in the Donaupark. Hollywood star director Robert Dornhelm headed a creative team that staged a poetic journey under the title PANTA RHEI ("Everything flows"), which had permanent change as its theme. The music was commissioned by LIVA from the successful Viennese film music composer Roman Kariolou.
The Visualised Klangwolke in numbers:
As a supplement to the Visualised Klangwolke, a Classical Klangwolke has also been held since 1985 as part of the International Bruckner Festival Linz. This is an orchestral concert in the Great Hall of the Brucknerhaus, which was initially broadcast to the Donaupark - in analogy to the first Klangwolke in 1979. In the meantime, however, it was decided to bring the visitors into the building. In order to make admission as low-threshold as possible, tickets for these Classical Klangwolke are issued at a standard price of € 5.
The success of the Klassische Klangwolke is due not least to the fact that renowned orchestras and conductors have been involved from the very beginning. The pioneering work was done by the Vienna Philharmonic under Lorin Maazel. Other prominent conductors were Claudio Abbado, Herbert Blomstedt, Riccardo Chailly, Franz Welser-Möst, Riccardo Muti, Václav Neumann, Georges Prêtre, Dennis Russell Davies, Michael Tilson Thomas and, in 2021, for the first time a woman, Silvia Spinnato. In addition to the Vienna Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria and the Bruckner Orchestra Linz also participated in the Classical Klangwolke.
The Classical Klangwolke in numbers:
Since 1998 the Kinderkulturzentrum Kuddelmuddel, together with creative artists and team colleagues, has been organising the Kinderklangwolke, for which the Donaupark at the height of the Brucknerhaus is transformed every year into a huge event area where families can romp around with their children in an informal atmosphere. During this time, the 'little sister' of the Linz Klangwolke has brought more than 20 topics relevant to children onto the large open-air stage, a gift to all those interested in culture, because neither the age of the visitors nor their origin or social position play a role.
In 2018, the Kinderklangwolke celebrated its 20th anniversary under the motto Schöne bunte Welt (Beautiful colourful world) and at the same time embarked on a new path. From that point on, the concept of an entire afternoon with festival character emerged, turning Linz's Donaupark into a colourful festival meadow. In 2019, Christoph Bochdansky had the little prince land in the middle of the Donaupark at Der kleine Prinz in Linz (The little prince in Linz), followed in 2020 by a mobile, digitally adapted children's sound cloud due to the Corona pandemic, which showed a controversy between analogue and digital under the title Doppelklick zum Glück (Double click for happiness) and could be experienced hybrid, i.e. both live and digital, for the first time at two different places. Back in the Donaupark in 2021, the "rebel of children's music" Suli Puschban ensured a good mood at the Kinderklangwolke 21 with Die Flut aus Mut.
The Kinderklangwolke in numbers:
Further information on the Kinderklangwolke can be found at kinderklangwolke.online and kuddelmuddel.at
