Music is in the Air

Dramatic and monumental are the performances on Bregenz Lake Stage where Puccini’s “Tosca” will be performed for the second time in 2008. In Bregenz Tosca is turned into an amazing show that combines classical music with state-of-the-art light and sound engineering. Tosca requires vocal intensity from the singers as well as great acting skills.

Many of the country’s most renowned festivals are dedicated to its great composers: in 1976 Hermann Prey founded a small festival titled Schubertiade in the also small town of Hohenems. Over the years this festival has turned into the world’s most important Schubert event to which the composer’s devotees from all over the world return every year. The festival’s wonderful piano and lieder evenings draw some 45,000 visitors.

Joseph Haydn has his own festival since 1986 – in Eisenstadt where the composer has been working as Kapellmeister for the Count of Esterházy for over 40 years. The Haydn Festival is held in original venues where the master used to work and perform such as Haydnsaal at Schloss Esterházy which is famous for its unique acoustic properties. In 2009, the year of Haydn’s 200th death anniversary, Eisenstadt and Burgenland will honor the composer with a series of great concerts and events.

In 2008 the world’s most important Bach Festival will not be staged in Germany but in Austria – funnily enough in the city of Mozart. The fact that Salzburg is going to host this prestigious festival was anything but coincidence: the New Bach Society only grants festival licenses to those cities that have shown great efforts in keeping alive and honoring the legacy of this famous composer.

This year’s motto of styriarte, founded in 1985, is ‘everything flows’ and focuses on the element ‘water’. Mentor of the festival is the eminent Nikolaus Harnoncourt who was raised in Graz. This year the world-famous conductor will again stage and conduct ‘Idomeneo’, the work with which he completely re-invented Mozart three decades ago.

The country’s time-honored castles and palaces make for truly unique settings for classical concerts. Romantic Schloss Grafenegg, the namesake of this festival, is delightfully situated amid a large historic park. In 2008 the event is held for the second time under the patronage of the renowned pianist Rudolf Buchbinder and will again feature top notch orchestras including the Philharmonic Orchestra Oslo, the Orchestre de Paris, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra.

An absolutely unique location is Austria’s largest natural stage, the Roman Quarry in St. Margarethen/Burgenland. With its bizarre rock formations it provides the ideal setting for great opera performances such as La Traviata this summer.

Schloss Schönbrunn, a baroque gem and world heritage site, is the beautiful venue of a special musical event, the free Concert for Europe of the Vienna Philharmonics which draws music lovers from all over the world to Austria.

The undisputed highlight of the festival year still is the Salzburg Festival, one of the world’s largest and most distinguished festivals of drama and classical music. This year everything will revolve around Love and Death. It is also the ultimate event to ‘see and be seen’ as well as to enjoy wonderful music in spectacular settings.

Festival Dates:
Schubertiade, spring and fall
styriarte 27 June 0 27 July 2008
St. Margarethen Opera Festival from 9 July – 24 August 2008
Bregenz Festival from 23 July – 23 August 2008
Salzburg Festival from 26 July – 31 August 2008
Schloss Grafenegg Music Festival from 21 August – 7 September 2008
Haydn Festival Eisenstadt from 4 – 14 September 2008
Bach Festival Salzburg from 4 – 20 October 2008