It's over after 30 years: Günter Sirsch ends his activity as an organizer.
Again and again he brought well-known artists to the baroque hall of the Benediktbeuern monastery.
With two big concerts before Christmas, farewell is now celebrated.
Benediktbeuern/Murnau – Quadro Nuevo, Sigi Schwab, Michael Fitz, Martina Eisenreich, Rudi Zapf and the “Münchner Saitentratzer”: The list of artists who, due to Günter Sirsch’s engagement, have performed in the Baroque Hall under the title “Oberland Concerts” since 1993 came could be continued with many other names.
Alvaro Pierri also joins the ranks - one of the world's best guitarists, whom Sirsch brought to the monastery for his multi-day guitar festival in 2010.
Pierri was so enthusiastic about the atmosphere "that he gave one of the best concerts I've ever heard from him," remembers Sirsch.
The man from Murnau also maintains good contact with Sigi Schwab: "He was the first artist I organized back then," he looks back.
It was "a great collegial connection developed",
Special relationship with Quadro Nuevo
Sirsch also knows Quadro Nuevo from the founding years.
The relationship is so good that he still organizes them without a written contract, because: "We can rely on each other." Sirsch also associates the jazz musicians with the memory of one of his most beautiful concerts in the monastery, namely at an open-air concert in the courtyard of the cloister in July 2008. 700 visitors, a mild summer evening and a magnificent concert.
A few weeks later, guitarist Robert Wolf had a terrible car accident through no fault of his own, and he has been paraplegic ever since.
“You never forget that,” says Sirsch.
Retirement planned for a long time
Sirsch has been planning his retirement from the business for a long time.
On the one hand in the 30th year of existence, on the other hand due to more difficult advertising options, the corona crisis, inflation and falling viewership.
"Everything has its time," says the 62-year-old.
Organizing concerts has become more and more work and less and less profitable.
He invests 30 to 40 hours of work in advance of each appearance, says Sirsch.
In the past few years, he has noticed that posting posters for events has become more difficult.
"You can't rely solely on the Internet or on newsletters," says the Murnauer.
"Many people simply become aware of a poster that they discover while strolling around or shopping." But that is now possible in fewer and fewer shop windows.
Sirsch chalks it up to the retail trade in particular.
"Then there are sentences like: 'Then we have to clean the window afterwards.'"
The private music school "Musikzentrum" in Murnau and Penzberg continues to exist
The pandemic then made the organization more difficult, sometimes one concert became two because of the visitor requirements.
Everything involved considerable effort.
"And now you can feel that people either don't want to go to the concert for fear of infection or simply have to save," says Sirsch.
When he hosted Michael Fitz in the Baroque Hall in November, almost 100 people came.
"There used to be 180, 190 people at Fitz."
In Murnau, too, Sirsch will no longer hold concerts in the "Cultural and Conference Center" or in the parish hall, where he used to be in the early years.
Fortunately, the 62-year-old says he is in the comfortable position of not having to make a living from the events.
He runs the private music school "Musikzentrum" with 24 teachers in both Murnau and Penzberg.
This will continue to exist.
Django3000 on December 16th in the Alliance Hall
At the end there are two more concerts with artists who are close to Sirsch's heart: On Friday, December 16, "Django3000" will perform unplugged in the Allianz Hall of the Center for Environment and Culture (ZUK) at the Benediktbeuern monastery.
"They're not exactly my thing electronically, but unplugged they're great," says Sirsch.
He still knows band leader Florian Starflinger when he formed the ensemble "Luftmentschn" with Thomas and Rainer Gruber from Schlehdorf and Murnau respectively.
At the end “Quadro Nuevo”
The very last concert for him will be on Thursday, December 22, Quadro Nuevo, also in the Allianz Hall.
They play the Christmas program.
Sirsch doesn't know anything "of any surprises" yet - but due to the long-standing friendship, it will certainly be an unforgettable evening.
Tickets for the concerts online at www.oberland-konzerte.de
You can find more current news from the region around Bad Tölz at Merkur.de/Bad Tölz.
