Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Salzburg Festival 2020

Holy cow, I thought they didn't announce the programs until December, but I just noticed that the offerings for next summer's Salzburg Festival are already up. Let's have a look: eight operas including Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute, Electra, Boris Godunov and Don Pasquale. But also operas by Nono and Morton Feldman (the latter in concert performance). A few plays including Richard III by Shakespeare. Five concerts by the Vienna Philharmonic plus a host of guest orchestras: City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra · Orchestre des Champs-Élysées · SWR Symphonieorchester · West-Eastern Divan Orchestra · musicAeterna · ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien · Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester · Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra · Berliner Philharmoniker. Igor Levit is playing eight concerts that look like they include all the Beethoven piano sonatas!

There are all sorts of hidden gems such as the series of Moments Musicaux concerts where they don't tell you the program in advance, but it is sure to be good. On July 20 there is a chamber concert pairing Steve Reich's Different Trains with Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps. How could I miss that? On August 12 is a chamber concert devoted to a single long piece by Morton Feldman, Crippled Symmetry for flute, percussion and piano. How could I miss that? And the day after, the Belcea Quartet play an evening of Beethoven and Webern. August 4 is a Grigory Sokolov concert and it looks like half will be Mozart. July 30 there is a lieder recital by Christian Gerheher and Gerold Huber of works by Schubert, Berg and Fauré. Plus a gazillion other concerts including a bunch by students of the Mozarteum, stars of tomorrow.

Here is that Feldman piece, Crippled Symmetry:


I think I wrote something a lot like that, only it was four minutes long...

UPDATE: On August 28 Daniil Trifonov is playing this program:
ALBAN BERG
Piano Sonata, Op. 1
SERGEY PROKOFIEV
Sarcasms, Op. 17
BÉLA BARTÓK
Out of Doors – Five Pieces, Sz. 81
AARON COPLAND
Piano Variations
OLIVIER MESSIAEN
'Le Baiser de l’Enfant-Jésus'
from Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus
GYÖRGY LIGETI
Musica ricercata for Piano Nos. 1–4
KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN
Klavierstück IX
JOHN ADAMS
China Gates for Piano
JOHN CORIGLIANO
Fantasia on an Ostinato for piano

And how could I miss that! I think I am going to be buying a lot of cheap tickets just so I can see more concerts. For this concert tickets range from 25 to 120 Euros.

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