There are music festivals and there are music festivals, but one of the best this year is going to be the 33rd International Music Festival in Vienna. With a guest line-up of top names, conducting and playing the best of 20th century classical music, this promises to be a feast for all music-lovers.
Opening the concerts will be Gidon Kremer and the Viennna Philharmonic who will play Alban Berg’s violin concerto “To the Memory of an Angel”. Then the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Lorin Maazel will perform music by Bartók, Ravel and Stravinsky, the San Franscisco Symphony Orchestra will offer Richard Strauss’s tone poem “Thus Spake Zarathustra” and the “Wunderhorn” songs by Mahler featuring soloist Thomas Hampson. The Vienna Symphony Orchestra is scheduled to perform Mahler’s Eighth Symphony.
Danier Barenboim will be accompanying star tenor Rolando Villazón in a lieder recital, and Jordi Savall and the Belcea Quartet will provide chamber music. Jazz and other world music will not be forgotten either, and on stage to perform will be the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, the Jan Garbaret Group and Anouska Shankar and Mariza.
The programme also includes works by Copland, Debussy, de Dutilleux, Falla, Honegger, Messiaen and Poulenc with pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque.
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On May 24th 2007, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Valery Gergiev will create an evening of totally free musical enjoyment against the backdrop of the Schönbrunn Palace, an honour that,. In previous years, has fallen to the likes of Plácido Domingo, Subin Mehta and Bobby McFerrin.
One of Austria’s most important cultural exports, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra is justly regarded as one of its most important cultural exports, and in 2006 it was crowned he best in Europe by music magazine Le Monde de la Musique. It surpassed rivals like the Concertgebouw and the Berlin Philharmonic. In 2006, it’s New Year Concert, which is broadcast live to audiences round the world from the Golden Hall of Musikverein, was viewed by over 250 million people in 60 countries.
The orchestra will be seen at its best in the Palace gardens where the atmosphere is unforgettable. In spite of the rain last year, an audience of 70,000 attended the open air event, an audience that responded enthusiastically to the players and their conductors. Afterwards, many remarked on how motivated the orchestra seemed to be and described the setting as “the best in the world“.
Schönbrunn Palace , Palace Gardens (in front of the Neptune fountain), 13th district;
