Accompaniment: Bruno Kliegl on the glass harmonica
"The golden pot", E.T. A. Hoffmann's "Fairy Tale from the New Era" tells the story of the student Anselmus on his way from Dresden to the wonderland Atlantis. Hoffmann plays virtuously and full of irony with the levels of the spooky-fantastic and the contemplative-bourgeois. The fairy tale, which was published in 1814, is considered the pinnacle of Romantic narrative art. In the vivid interpretation by Michael Quast and Bruno Kliegl, "Der goldne Topf" appears as an unsurpassed precursor of modern fantasy literature.
Michael Quast conquered his audience as a versatile comedian, cabaret artist, noise acrobat and director. He was awarded, among others, the "German Cabaret Prize" and the "Rheingau Music Prize".
Musicologist and pianist Bruno Kliegl is one of the few glass harmonica players in Europe. In 1996 he co-founded the ensemble "Sinfonia di Vetro" and has since contributed to the renaissance of his sensitive glass instrument.
The glass harmonica was invented by Benjamin Franklin in London around 1760 by attaching tuned glass bowls to an axle and setting them in motion by foot drive. The sound is produced by pressure of moistened fingers on the rotating edges of the bowls, and the musician can play as on a keyboard. Some 400 compositions for glass harmonica are known today, including works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and the Dresden court kapellmeisters Hasse, Naumanu and Weber. E. T. A. Hoffmann raved about their sounds as a music critic and man of letters.
Text source and further information about this event: http://www.frankfurter-buergerstiftung.de/node/2485
