DW Radio and PRX will release a new season of Deutsche Welle Festival Concerts – classical music made in Germany – in October 2023. Our host, Cristina Burack, will take you through the country's best classical music festivals for exciting, moving and diverse performances, with music ranging from the Baroque to the 21st century. The season's 13 episodes will visit such major musical events as the Bach Festival, Beethoven Festival, Mozart Festival and Bayreuth Festival. In addition, you'll hear directly from musicians, conductors and festival directors as they share exclusive behind-the-scenes insight into the pieces and performances.
The episodes will be released from October 2023 to December 2023. Each one lasts one hour and 58 minutes. The series offers ideal flexibility, as you can broadcast the entire season, creating a regular listening experience, or use episodes individually as needed.
In 2023, the city of Leipzig celebrated "300 years of Bach in Leipzig." In 1723, the famous composer Johann Sebastian Bach came to the Saxon city to take up the position of Thomaskantor, or music director, which he held until his death in 1750. He wrote many beautiful cantatas during his first year in the position. Today, the pieces are sung by choirs all over the world. These cantatas were the central attraction at the 2023 Bach Festival. In this season of DW Festival Concerts, we present the festival's opening concert, which features the St. Thomas Boys choir performing some of these beloved first-year cantatas. The selection includes favorites of renowned early music conductors Ton Koopman and Philippe Herreweghe.
We also bring you a French evening from the Rheingau Festival that includes works by Hector Berlioz, while the concert from the Mozart Festival in Würzburg is all about the Mozart and his idols, including Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach. The Bayreuth Festival episode delivers highlights from a new production of "Parsifal," Richard Wagner's last opera. Listeners will be treated to the unique sound of the Bayreuth Festival Theater, which was designed by Wagner himself.
The chamber music festival "Spannungen" ("Tensions"), in Heimbach, offers up intimate and moving music from Mozart to Ravel as part of a tribute to the festival's late founder.
Our season also includes multiple concerts from the Beethoven Festival in Bonn, the composer's birthplace. Conductor Paavo Järvi opens the multiweek event leading the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich in Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 ("From the New World") and his Cello Concerto op. 104, with the passionate Russian cellist Anastasia Kobekina as the soloist. Also on the program is Arthur Honegger's "Pacific 231." Another exiting episode features famous mandolin player Avi Avital and the New York string quartet Brooklyn Rider playing a selection of chamber music spanning some 300 years!
As long as the broadcasting rights remain available, you can also air programs from our 2022 season. These include a Mozart Festival concert featuring the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and pianist Seong-Jin Cho performing Mozart's Piano Concerto in A Major. Or there's the concert from the 2022 Bach Festival that illuminated the similarities and differences between JS Bach's music and that of his son Carl Philipp Emanuel, who was widely popular in his time, even more so than his father! The new organist of the famous St. Thomas Church, Johannes Lang, also presented a delightfully varied selection of preludes, fugues and partitas by JS Bach and numerous other relatives. Episodes presenting Bach's St. John Passion and St. Mathew Passion are additionally available.
At the 2022 Beethoven Festival, the Budapest Festival Orchestra performed Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 ("Eroica") under the direction of Iván Fischer. German-American violinist Augustin Hadelich gave an expressive and emotional performance of Beethoven's Violin Concerto, while soprano Anna Prohaska delighted audiences with arias from Mozart's opera "The Marriage of Figaro."
Stations may subscribe to the full series via PRX SubAuto or download individual episodes.
The full list of all 13 episodes for the new season is available now.
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DW Radio and PRX will release a new season of Deutsche Welle Festival Concerts – classical music made in Germany – in October 2023. Our host, Cristina Burack, will take you through the country's best classical music festivals for exciting, moving and diverse performances, with music ranging from the Baroque to the 21st century. The season's 13 episodes will visit such major musical events as the Bach Festival, Beethoven Festival, Mozart Festival and Bayreuth Festival. In addition, you'll hear directly from musicians, conductors and festival directors as they share exclusive behind-the-scenes insight into the pieces and performances.The episodes will be released from October 2023 to December 2023. Each one lasts one hour and 58 minutes. The series offers ideal flexibility, as you can... Show full description
