The Dresden Music Festival has presented its program for 2024, which is under Motto “Horizonte” is ready.The program surprises with diversity: In addition to classical stars, greats from rock, pop and jazz are also expected. A large-scale series with concert artists and those with historical information Performances of Wagner operas under Kent Nagano is to be continued.
If Founded as a classical music festival to look beyond the Elbe Valley, the Dresden Music Festival has long since established itself as an internationally recognized festival of cross-border genres. Under the motto “Horizons”, the 47th year is intended to look further than ever beyond the previously defined framework. This applies both to the guests appearing and to their musical spectrums.
According to festival director Jan Vogler, “the most colorful festival year since the festival was founded” will be celebrated for a whole month, from May 9th to June 9th, 2024. The marketing concept was also revised to match this: both the printed program brochure and the website appear in a new, user-friendly design.
A total of 60 events at a total of 21 venues are intended to attract local, national and international audiences to Dresden in the spring. In addition to the 56 concerts during the festival, there are four other special concerts outside the festival period.
Size Names, surprising combinations
The program presented on Thursday sounds like an extremely attractive offer that could serve very different interests and wishes. From rock legend Sting to mainstream jazz and crossover à la Stacey Kent, Jane Monheit and Anoushka Shankar to classical stars such as pianist Igor Levit, violinist Daniel Hope and Philippe Herreweghe with the Concerto Vocale Gent, there is something for pretty much all tastes. Even those with more unusual preferences should get their money’s worth, because the first meeting of the Dresden electro-pop duo Etna with the Dresden Kapellsolisten is sure to cause surprises.
Ensembles from Dresden in the program
However, those who prefer the tried and tested will be able to look forward to guest performances by, for example, the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and numerous other well-known ensembles and chamber musicians. Of course, the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, the Saxon State Orchestra, the Kreuzchor and other local ensembles are represented in the festival program in a tried and tested manner. The Dresden State Theater and the State Operetta also contribute their own productions from the current repertoire.
Excitement and fascination can also be expected at concerts by the Chinese-Icelandic jazz singer Laufeny and at the “Night of the Young Stars”. Greats such as trumpeter Till Brönner and drummer Martin Grubinger will be available as musical sponsors to provide a stage for young artists.
Dresden Festival orchestra continues Wagner project
The sensational collaboration between the Dresden Festival Orchestra and Concerto Köln under conductor Kent Nagano will also be continued. The project, which started in 2023 with Richard Wagner’s “Rheingold”, is intended to perform the entire tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelung” in historically informed performance practice over the next three years. A scientifically supported research project that has already attracted international interest. “Die Walküre” will follow in 2024, first in Prague, then in Amsterdam and Dresden.
The Originalklang series also includes a baroque concert with the soprano Janine de Bique in the Frauenkirche and a performance of Joseph Haydn’s oratorio “The Seasons” under Jordi Savall in the Kulturpalast.
Dresden Music Festival with a social message
As in previous years, Jan Vogler, who has been successfully acting as director of the Dresden Music Festival for 15 years, also performs artistically as a cellist in several concerts.
According to him, the festival motto “Horizons” should refer to both social concerns and musical diversity: “Our topics always have a meaning for society, we should look forward to recognize that there is something positive behind the horizon “Music is able to strengthen our attitude to life like hardly anything else.”
Editing: tsa