1994 . Preproduction
Co-producer sought
The year was 1985. After everything had been officially prepared in Bruckner's birthplace for a major Bruckner event, but too little public funding was provided for its implementation (production of the film, event equipment, etc.), I tried to find honorable private patrons and investors.
I wasn't entirely surprised that the private television stations returned some of my classical music proposal package unopened, even though, for example, RTL co-founder Dr. Helmut Thoma is a fellow countryman of Bruckner's, and I would have expected a bit more cultural awareness from him. What shocked me was the response from the public broadcasters, who, after all, have a corresponding cultural mandate from their not entirely voluntary license fee payers. But here, too, the almost unanimous sentiment was: "We regret to inform you, but currently no money is allocated for such regionally marginal cultural events as the 100th anniversary of Bruckner's death"—Mozart yes, Bruckner no! What would the responses have been if the sender had not been me, but rather the sadly deceased patron of the BRUCKNER'S NINTH project, a certain Herbert von Karajan himself?
So, while I continued working on the visual realization of BRUCKNER'S NINTH, I was urgently looking for a musical partner who was not only powerful enough to provide a large orchestra and conductor in addition to the usual production costs, but above all, as is usual in such cases, did not impose any insurmountable artistic requirements of their own.
First success in 1994: The classical music division of ProSiebenSat1 Media AG 2000, owned by media mogul Leo Kirch in Munich, was willing to provide the necessary funds—with a few artistically acceptable stipulations! However, in the middle of the initial meetings, one of the responsible managers, a certain Mr. H. Hohlfeld, sowed some serious poison into the hitherto positive contract negotiations. As fate would have it, he was unfortunately one of those responsible for the filmic documentation of Karajan's digital music experiments, which I had, in a very undiplomatic but justified manner, denounced as utterly amateurish during a phone call. As fate would have it, a successful screenwriter, an experienced dramaturge, and an equally accomplished director were suddenly supposed to thoroughly revise my "Bruckner project," and, moreover: "Why didn't you apply for film funding, Mr. Legenstein!?"—I was perfectly entitled to refuse...
Having foolishly focused on a single partner for the second time, thus wasting valuable time searching for potentially more competent collaborators, I vowed to pursue multiple avenues in the future, at least until concrete contracts were in place. After all, one learns from experience – and perhaps the best way to learn is through mistakes.
[ ADDENDUMMarch 8, 2002: Media group KirchMedia, headquartered in Unterföhring near Munich, files for insolvency at the Munich District Court after negotiations with its creditors have failed. The beginning of the downfall of Leo Kirch's media empire.
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ADDENDUM: 11.10.2007: Leo Kirch has just recently re-entered the media business ... ]
