It was with these tongue-in-cheek lines that Hans Gál (1890–1987) gently but firmly reminded the members of his madrigal choir of their first rehearsal in 1938. This musical good-luck pig was served up as a three-part canon formatted as a postcard and garnished with tastefully placed madrigalisms. And indeed, madrigals were a huge love of this versatile musician—a fact that even earned him the nickname “Madri-Gál”.

In the arts, it is possible for multiple superlatives to exist side by side—for which reason this author hopes it won’t be taken amiss that he considers the concert series “Echo of the Unheard” to be the most important one in Viennese musical life. This series affords an experience of how an entire, fully valid era of music history exists of which Arnold Schönberg, Viktor Ullmann, Erwin Schulhoff, Egon Wellesz, Erich Zeisl, Ursula Mamlok, Vítězslava Kaprálová, Ruth Schönthal, and Marcel Rubin are just a few representatives among the approximately one hundred composers whose works it has included so far.

This year will see Exilarte, Center for Banned Music—founded as a private association and institutionalised as part of the mdw in 2016—celebrate 20 years of existence. In the following anniversary conversation, Exilarte head Gerold W. Gruber surveys what has been achieved and what still remains to be done.