With 63 events at 22 venues, Jan Vogler, director of the Dresden Music Festival, and his team are aiming present a varied and interesting programme for next year’s Dresden Music Festival, which takes place between 18 May and 18 June 2023 across the German city and is themed ‘Black and White’ .
Among the highlights of the festival are the world premiere of the White Rose Trilogy by US composer David Chesky, which addresses story of German resistance fighter Sophie Scholl, with the Dresdner Sinfoniker under Eric Jacobsen; and the commissioned work for violoncello, choir and orchestra, On a Clear Day, with texts based on a cycle of poems by Ulla Hahn, by the US composer Sean Shepherd, which will be premiered by the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg, conducted by Kent Nagano and with Jan Vogler, already at Carnegie Hall New York in April 2023.
In the concert series Tastenspiele during the festival, the piano will be the focal point with 18 concerts, including the cycle of Beethoven symphonies in Franz Liszt’s transcriptions for piano, interpreted by Louis Lortie and students from his piano class, with the Michael Wollny Trio and Emanuel Ax, among others. Highly acclaimed soloists continue to visit the Dresden Music Festival stages, including Anne-Sophie Mutter, Till Brönner, David Garrett, Martin Grubinger, Joyce DiDonato, Hélène Grimaud and Midori.
A special ‘historically informed’ performance of Wagner’s Das Rheingold with the Dresden Festival Orchestra and Concerto Köln conducted by Kent Nagano is another highlight. This is part of an extensive music research project of Richard Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen” over the next four years based in Dresden, which originally began as Wagner Lesarten with Concerto Köln and now sees the continuance under the joint artistic leadership of Vogler and Nagano.
Renowned orchestras will travel to Dresden for guest performances, among them: the Munich Philharmonic under Tugan Sokhiev with soprano Christiane Karg; the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini under Omer Meir Wellber with Jan Vogler and pianist Mikhail Pletnev; the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Harding with pianist Kirill Gerstein; the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Herbert Blomstedt with violinist María Dueñas; the Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest under Hartmut Haenchen with the pianist duo Lucas & Arthur Jussen; Mozarteumorchester Salzburg under Andrew Manze; the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen with percussionist Martin Grubinger under Tarmo Peltokoski; the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra under Daniele Gatti; and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis.
More information can also be found on musikfestspiele.com.