Music of Language Besser wird es nicht

Wien Modern [ENA] “Besser wird’s nicht” brings Josef Hader and Birgit Minichmayr together for a reading of Elfriede Jelinek’s “BE LONGING (Geh, Dichterin!).” Produced by the Musikverein and Wien Modern within “Musikverein Perspektiven: Elfriede Jelinek,” the event places the spoken word inside the Wien Modern festival associated with contemporary musical exploration which takes place in Autumn in Vienna.

Its promise lies in an artistic encounter: two readers, one literary voice, and the possibilities that emerge between them. For a contemporary-music audience, a reading need not represent a departure from listening. Language possesses its own expressive materials: rhythm, repetition, pace, emphasis and silence. A sentence can accumulate pressure through its construction; a pause can interrupt expectation as decisively as a musical rest. These observations offer a way into the evening without assuming how Hader and Minichmayr will interpret the text.

Their shared billing invites attention to difference. Two voices can expose contrasting energies within the same writing, making interpretation audible through changes of weight, timing and address. The programme identifies both performers as readers, rather than announcing an instrumental or theatrical arrangement. That distinction allows the event to be appreciated on its own terms.

Even the titles create an intriguing juxtaposition. “Besser wird’s nicht,” suggesting that things will not improve—or that they cannot get better—sits beside the suggestively divided English “BE LONGING” and the German injunction “Geh, Dichterin!” Rather than settling their relationship in advance, the evening invites listeners to discover its tensions through performance.

The attraction is attention: an opportunity to hear literature as an event unfolding in time. Within the Jelinek-focused programme, this reading promises a reminder that contemporary musical curiosity can begin with the human voice, before any instrument enters. Its intimacy may prove its strongest invitation: listening closely to words, and discovering what performance releases within them.