According to Aristotle, «A whole is that which has a beginning, middle and an end». Though he also knew that such a complete whole does not actually exist in the human world as the beginning should not occur at some random time, but rather at the right time, the end, and the middle should also have a good form that varies from the beginning to the end. But when is the right time? And what is a good form? Do we not have the sense that we are too late or too early, that things pass too quickly or too slowly, and even if we would like to in principal, does it have to be right now?

It is usually particularly on music that we depend to create reliability. The proverbial «art of time» is responsible to order time well. A piece should be an entirety in an Aristotelian sense, a concert should start and end at an appropriate time, it should not be too long or too short, but just right. The Music Festival Bern will refuse to meet these expectations this year. After the subject of illusion lured us into the unknown last year, this year our theme is time. Even if you can’t say exactly what the right length of a concert or lecture should be, one thing is clear: a minute is too short and 48-hours is definitely too long. But the festival format oscillates between these lengths: minute lectures by the increasingly dissociated associative philosopher and the ensemble Polygon’s non-stop mini festival.

It starts, where else, right at the beginning: the opening night starts too early, shattering every sensible dimension, throwing everything into disarray, and in the middle of it we’ll get something to eat, at least. On Saturday night, a concert in the cathedral will simply carry on and on until the bewitching hour. The Zytglogge rings incorrectly. The very old and the very new mix at every step. Jürg Kienberger disturbs constantly. One hundred metronomes can’t harmonise and finally stop ticking one after the other to mark the end of the festival.

In the centre, if one can speak of a centre in this untimely mix, stands the composer Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1918–1970), who would have turned a hundred years old this year, and now, 48 years after his death, can rejoice over being our composer in residence in Bern. Contemporary composers will perform their Zimmermann-inspired pieces in his honour every evening from 19.18 to 19.70. His compositions will also appear time and again in the festival, and there will even be a lecture about time and Zimmermann.

His idea encompassed an inner time in which past, present and future pose no opposition but are simultaneously present and interact with one another. If we find ourselves in such a timeless time there is no room for a single beginning, a middle and an end, but rather space for many beginnings, middles and ends. And that is also somewhat comforting: As, in such a rich programme on offer as this year’s music festival, we don’t have to rush around. We’re too late anyway, and nevertheless, or therefore, are always right on time.

Christian Grüny & the curators