Dresden Music Festival
Although the Dresden Music Festival has its historic precursors in the »Muses' Games« and »Zwinger Parties« of the Saxon Electors, they owe their current existence to a government decree issued in the midst of the Cold War. From Berlin, capital of the GDR, the SED's Central Committee and Ministers' Council decreed: »Beginning in 1978, Dresden will have an annual music festival of international renown, the Dresden Music Festival!« Indeed, this decree »from above« was implemented, and despite a lack of foreign currency, the Festival more than lived up to the demands. World stars such as Marilyn Horne, René Kollo, Barbara Hendricks, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau came, to perform in the musical city of Dresden or to have the chance to appear with the »Kapelle«. During the years of the iron curtain, the visits from great orchestras were almost legendary: Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic, Claudio Abbado and La Scala Milan, Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.