Music: Bauhaus: Reviewed 1919–1933
Reviewed 1919–1933 LTM £10
It may go against the interdisciplinary yet essentially purest aesthetic of Walter Gropius’ Bauhaus to splice theory, art history and music to create an entertaining taster of Modernism, but this is what Bauhaus: Reviewed 1919–1933 attempts to do. This collection of short speeches by Albers, Mies and Gropius on the history of the Bauhaus, describe the still attractive utopian ideals and the genius of the charismatic idealists who ran the school. These snippets of conversations and lectures, sometimes spoken of the cuff with cars passing in the background of the recording, sometimes read from rustling sheets of paper, are interspersed with works by Hauer, Wolpe, Antheil and Schoenberg. The music and the words are inspiring and rousing, but what’s the audience for this slightly sophomoric mélange? Will this CD ever be played more than once?
Alexander Kennedy is an arts writer