The Lay of Love & Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke

October 2024 marks the 80th anniversary of the death of composer Viktor Ullmann - an occasion to focus on his artistic legacy and his unshakeable belief in the power of art. As early as 1918, while stationed at the Italian front, Ullmann was intensively occupied with Rainer M. Rilke's "Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke" (The Love and Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke). This work accompanied him all the way to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where he created an impressive melodrama from it in 1944. The Austrian pianist Senka Brankovic and the actor Helmut Mooshammer present Cornet Rilke's experiences in the war against the Turks, in which he finally meets his death, as a complete original narrative with Ullmann's music, including the passages omitted from Rilke's text by Ullmann. Today, in a time of fragile social conditions, his work reminds us once again of the everlasting importance of art and humanity.