“There are tears at the heart of things, and mortal things touch our minds,” Virgil’s Aeneid claims. The ancient epics stand as an impressive testament to the extent to which narration also started out as song. Expressing great emotions, tears and lamentations played a central role – also in the vocal tradition: they underscored sorrow, rage, desperation, longing and fear.
Orlando di Lasso
They honoured the dead and offered relief to those grieving. This year’s Ouverture spirituelle also focuses on grief and lamenting, giving them resounding shape and touching the heart: whether in Orlando di Lasso’s Lagrime di San Pietro, in works by Palestrina, Gesualdo and Bach, or in the music of Dmitri Shostakovich or Luigi Nono, Sofia Gubaidulina and Wolfgang Rihm.
Sofia Gubaidulina, photo Faces of Classical Music
Ouverture spirituelle
The Ouverture spirituelle opens with Lagrime di San Pietro, a masterwork of the a-cappella literature. In the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s overwhelming staged adaptation by Peter Sellars, this final work by Orlando di Lasso is performed twice at the Kollegienkirche. “I bear responsibility” is the central theme of these madrigals setting texts by Luigi Tansillo (1510- 1568), which portray the anguish of St. Peter after his denial of Jesus.
Wofgang Rihm, photo Salzburg City Guide
Sorrow and lamenting – set to music by Palestrina, Victoria or Gesualdo as well – resound in the face of the cross, whether in Bach’s cantata Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen and its echo in Franz Liszt, in Wofgang Rihm’s motets setting texts of the Passion, in Sofia Gubaidulina’s text-less Sieben Worte and in settings of the Miserere, the mass and requiem services through the centuries, of which the programme features examples by Jan Dismas Zelenka, Anton Bruckner and Arvo Pärt.
Jordi Savall, photo David Ignaszweski
Tears of innocent suffering well from Mary’s eyes, resounding through the Stabat Mater settings by Marc-Antoine Charpentier and Domenico Scarlatti performed by Jordi Savall and his ensembles La Capella Reial de Catalunya and Le Concert des Nations at the Kollegienkirche.
John Dowland
John Dowland’s sorrowful collection Lachrimae, or Seaven Teares still touches our hearts today in its sublime melancholy. Tears of a more recent past are recalled by Shostakovich’s monumental Symphony No. 7, the “Leningrad”, and by Luigi Nono’s Il canto sospeso, based on the farewell letters from members of the anti-fascist resistance before their execution. Both works are performed by the SWR Symphony Orchestra, the former with its new chief conductor Teodor Currentzis, the latter together with the SWR Vocal Ensemble under Peter Rundel.
Pascal Dusapin’s opera Medeamaterial offers a direct connection with the myths of antiquity; Heiner Müller’s text combines the ancient tale of Medea with dark visions of the future. The concert performance with Jennifer France as Medea and the Vocalconsort Berlin and the Akademie für Alte Musik under Franck Ollu also marks the start of the series Time with Dusapin, which continues with the performance of Granum sinapis and the French composer’s requiem settings Umbrae mortis and Dona Eis.
Pascal Dusapin, photo Jérôme Bonnet/Modds
Pascal Dusapin, born in Nancy in 1955, discovered the organ as his instrument at the age of ten. At eighteen, he decided to become a composer after hearing Edgard Varèse’s Arcana. In Dusapin’s own words, Varèse became his “musical grandfather” – and Iannis Xenakis, with whom he studied from 1974 to 1978, his “musical father”, who also awakened his interest in architecture and mathematics. Dusapin also integrates influences of folk music and jazz and has a predilection for subjects from the depth of mythology.
Iannis Xenakis and the UPIC system
As part of the series Time with Dusapin, one of the most comprehensive works by his teacher Iannis Xenakis, Kraanerg, will be heard at the Kollegienkirche – played by the Klangforum Wien under the baton of Sylvain Cambreling. Georg Nigl (baritone) and Olga Pashchenko (piano) perform Dusapin’s song cycle O Mensch! at the Mozarteum. Emilio Pomàrico uses a concert by Klangforum Wien to juxtapose Dusapin’s works with those of Anton Webern. The ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna performs the large-scale orchestral work Morning in Long Island at the Felsenreitschule.
Pascal Dusapin and the cello
Pascal Dusapin is also an acclaimed photographer. The Leica Gallery Salzburg shows an exhibition documenting the photographic output of the composer from 25 July onwards.
George Enescu 1930, photo Wikipedia
The Salzburg Festival also dedicates “Time with…” to the oeuvre of the Rumanian composer George Enescu (1881-1955). As a child, Enescu was so fascinated by the songs and dances of the Romani people that he built himself a toy violin. At the age of seven, he was sent to Vienna for his violin studies, and at 14, Enescu was already a composition student in Paris. The child prodigy became an all-round musician, successful as a conductor, violin virtuoso, teacher, musicologist and organizer in the USA and Rumania and everywhere in between.
Patricia Kopatchinskaja, photo Marco Borggreve
Today, his music seems more impressive than ever. Transcending the boundaries between epochs, worlds and styles, George Enescu can now be rediscovered as one of the most original composers of his time. The series Time with Enescu offers not only his magnum opus, Œdipe, as directed by Achim Freyer and conducted by Ingo Metzmacher, but also five concerts: together with their musical partners, the violin virtuosos Maxim Vengerov, Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Renaud Capuçon and the violist Tabea Zimmermann explore Enescu’s chamber music cosmos, juxtaposing his works with those by Johannes Brahms and Maurice Ravel, who was a friend of Enescu during their student days. Members of the Vienna Philharmonic perform what may be Enescu’s most momentous chamber music work: his Octet for Strings.
Vienna Philharmonic
The Vienna Philharmonic traditionally presents five concert programmes: Riccardo Muti dedicates the performances of Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem to the memory of Herbert von Karajan († 16 July 1989).
Riccardo Muti, photo Silvia Lelli
The soloists are Krassimira Stoyanova, Anita Rachvelishvili, Francesco Meli, Ildar Abdrazakov, joined by the Concert Association of the Vienna State Opera Chorus. Herbert Blomstedt conduct’s Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 9, Daniel Barenboim his Kindertotenlieder and Symphony No. 5. Franz Welser-Möst leads the Viennese orchestra in works by Richard Wagner, Richard Straus and Dmitri Shostakovich: the soloists in Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 14 will be Asmik Grigorian and Matthias Goerne. Bernard Haitink concludes the concert series of the Vienna Philharmonic at the 2019 Salzburg Festival, interpreting Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 Op. 58 with Murray Perahia at the piano as well as Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7.
Asmik Grigorian, photo Rytis Seskeitis
Guest Orchestras
In the series of Guest Orchestras, Teodor Currentzis returns to the Salzburg Festival,
performing for the first time as the new chief conductor of the SWR Symphony Orchestra. The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, which celebrates its 20-year anniversary next year, is joined by Anne-Sophie Mutter and Martha Argerich as soloists. The WEDO will also perform Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 under the baton of its founder Daniel Barenboim – a work which also graced the programme of its very first concert.
Martha Argerich, photo Adriano Heitman
After conducting operas for the past two seasons, Mariss Jansons brings his Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra back to Salzburg in 2019 – and Kirill Petrenko his Berlin Philharmonic.
Kirill Petrenko, photo Monika Rittershaus
One fixture of the concert programme is the appearance of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra: in the summer of 2019, it performs under the baton of Herbert Blomstedt and with Christian Gerhaher as soloist.
Christian Gerhaher, photo Thomas Egli
The ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna offers a concert led by Jonathan Nott and also plays the Prize Winner’s Concert with the winner of the 2018 Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award, Gábor Káli. Andris Nelsons rounds out the series of guest orchestras with his new ensemble, the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, playing Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8.
Chamber concerts
Chamber concerts will be performed this coming summer by Martha Argerich and Daniel Barenboim with members of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, playing works by Sergei Prokofiev, Robert Schumann and Dmitri Shostakovich.
Quatuor Ebène, photo Julien Mignot
The Quatuor Ebène offers works by Johannes Brahms, Henri Dutilleux and Ludwig van Beethoven; the Quatuor Modigliani is joined by Lawrence Power (viola) and Sabine Meyer (clarinet) in quintets by Mozart. Mitsuko Uchida closes the series of chamber music concerts together with clarinettist Jörg Widmann and soprano Anna Lucia Richter.
Song recitals
Mauro Peter, photo Christian Felber
Song recitals will be performed by Christian Gerhaher, Georg Nigl, Patricia Petibon, Mauro Peter and Diana Damrau, together with their artistic partners at the piano or harp. A special song recital features the legendary Winterreise by Schubert, interpreted by Matthias Goerne and Markus Hinterhäuser and directed and with visualizations by William Kentridge. This “trio for singer, pianist and film projector” has been celebrated around the world.
William Kentridge, photo Marc Shoul
Solo recitals
Once again, the Solo recitals feature the greatest pianists of our times: Igor Levit, Grigory Sokolov, Evgeny Kissin, Arcadi Volodos, Maurizio Pollini, Mitsuko Uchida and Khatia Buniatishvili. The series also presents Maxim Vengerov and Patricia Kopatchinskaja.
Khatia Buniatishvili, photo Sony Classical / Gavin Evans
Mozart Matinees
Riccardo Minasi, photo Drew Gardner
The Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg offers its traditional Mozart Matinees under the baton of its chief conductor Riccardo Minasi, its conductor laureate Ivor Bolton and Ádám Fischer. After his outstanding success last summer, Raphäel Pichon returns to the podium with the Mozarteum Orchestra, presenting an extraordinary Mozart Academy: together, they follow the musical traces of the development of Mozart’s Da Ponte cycle. Andrew Manze makes his Mozart Matinee debut and leads the traditional performance of the Mass in C-Minor at the Salzburg Festival.
Andrew Manze, photo Wikimedia
Andrew Manze conducts the Camerata Salzburg and the Salzburg Bach Choir in the C-Minor Mass. The Camerata Salzburg also performs with its conductor laureate Roger Norrington, with Lorenzo Viotti and Manfred Honeck. The soloist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Camerata Salzburg under Manfred Honeck will be Lang Lang.
Lang Lang, photo Haiqiang Lv
Young Singers Project
With the Young Singers Project, the Salzburg Festival created a high-carat platform to support young vocalists. In 2019 this project looks back upon eleven years of successful history. Participants of the Young Singers Project perform this year’s children’s opera, Der Gesang der Zauberinsel, a world premiere by Marius Felix Lange, and are involved in several other performances during the 2019 Festival season. In a final concert, the YSP members present themselves to the Salzburg audience. Public master classes in 2019 will be led by Christa Ludwig, Anne Sofie von Otter, Malcolm Martineau and Helmut Deutsch.
Marius Felix Lange, photo SoundCloud
Every year, the Salzburg Festival creates a value of 183 million Euros in Salzburg and 215 million Euros in Austria, directly and indirectly. The overall budget for 2019 is 61.76 million Euros. (After Press materials)
Marijan Zlobec