The Dresdner Musikfestspiele bring their new Wagner Sound to the Lucerne Festival (August 2024)

The Dresdner Musikfestspiele opens a new chapter in Wagner interpretation history with its »The Wagner Cycles« project. At the invitation of the Lucerne Festival, Richard Wagner’s »Die Walküre« will be performed in a historically informed concert version with the Dresdner Festspielorchester and Concerto Köln under the baton of Kent Nagano at the KKL Lucerne on August 21, 2024.
After the celebrated performance of »Das Rheingold« last year, the audience can once again revel in the clear, transparent and textually intelligible Wagner sound of the 19^th century when »Die Walküre« is presented: an experience promising inspiring musical discoveries.

»Since Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s spectacular Monteverdi interpretations in the 1970s, we have been living with the words original sound and performance practice. The Dresden Ring gives these terms a new lease of life. Our Wagner sound is warm, transparent and enormously colorful, it not only promotes text comprehensibility, it builds a magical bridge to a new Wagner reception that opens up the work of the much-discussed composer to us anew,« says Jan Vogler, Artistic Director of the Dresdner Musikfestspiele.

The performance is part of the project »The Wagner Cycles«, initiated in Dresden in 2023 to bring together musical practice and academic research for a novel sound experience in the city that was Wagner’s home for many years. Featuring historical instruments and the vocal and declamatory style of the Wagner era, this research-based performance reveals unknown or long-forgotten facets of the music.
The goal is to work with a team of international academics to perform one part of the »Ring« every year, in keeping with the principles of historically informed performance practice, in Dresden and worldwide. The guest appearance in Lucerne marks the final touring stop of »Die Walküre« this year, after concerts in Prague, Amsterdam, Cologne, Hamburg and Dresden.

The project »The Wagner Cycles« is supported by the Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) of the Federal Republic of Germany as well as the Free State of Saxony.

The Dresdner Musikfestspiele was founded by the City of Dresden in 1978; since the beginning of the cellist Jan Vogler’s tenure as Artistic Director in 2009, it has developed into one of the leading festivals in Europe. In addition to performances by the world’s major orchestras, internationally celebrated soloists and musicians from the jazz, world music, crossover and rock scenes, it also hosts performances by stars such as Hollywood’s Bill Murray and the blues legend Eric Clapton.

The 48th Dresdner Musikfestspiele will take place from May 18 to June 14, 2025.

Cast »Walküre« in Lucerne:

Wotan Simon Bailey
Siegmund Maximillian Schmitt
Sieglinde Sarah Wegener
Brünnhilde Åsa Jäger
Hunding Patrick Zielke
Fricka Claude Eichenberger
Helmwige Natalie Karl
Gerhilde Chelsea Zurflüh
Ortlinde Ania Vegry
Waltraute Ulrike Malotta
Siegrune Ida Aldrian
Roßweiße Marie-Luise Dreßen
Grimgerde Eva Vogel
Schwertleite Jasmin Etmina

Dresdner Festspielorchester and Concerto Köln
Conductor: Kent Nagano

Dresden Music Festival 2024 – “Horizons” (May 2024)

The Dresden Music Festival begins a four-week celebration of music in all its facets and genres: on May 9 with a historically informed concertante performance of Richard Wagner’s “Die Walküre” with the Dresden Festival Orchestra and Concerto Köln at Kulturpalast, conducted by Kent Nagano. This concert is part of “The Wagner Cycles”, a project by the Dresden Music Festival under the overall artistic direction of Kent Nagano and Jan Vogler (Intendant of the Dresden Music Festival) which will bring all parts of Wagner’s Ring in historically informed concert performances to the stage until 2026. “The Wagner Cycles” will be continued with “Siegfried” in 2025.

Next concerts of the opening weekend: On May 10, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under the baton of Klaus Mäkelä at Kulturpalast with Bruckners 5^th Symphony, on May 11 Francesco Piemontesi’s piano recital at Palais im Großen Garten and the jazz-funk band Lehmanns Brothers at Reithalle Dresden and on May 12, with “Musica non grata” presenting two almost forgotten female composers (Amélie Nikisch & Rachel Danziger van Embden) at Palais im Großen Garten and in the evening, Dr. Harald Lesch and Merlin Ensemble Wien: “The Four Seasons in Climate Change” with music by Antonio Vivaldi at Kulturpalast.

Further information can be found on the Dresden Music Festival website:
musikfestspiele.com

Dresdner Musikfestspiele program 2024: “Horizons” (November 2023)

Next year’s edition of the Dresdner Musikfestspiele with its theme “Horizons” will take place from May 9 to June 9, 2024.

Jan Vogler, cellist and Intendant of the Dresdner Musikfestspiele, is focusing on variety and new discoveries in the program of the 47th festival:

“The reception of classical music is changing. It could be the biggest transformation for almost a hundred years. We let ourselves be inspired by this and explore new horizons with our fantastic audience in 2024. I am looking forward to the most colorful festival year since the festival was founded.”

The opening concert with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Klaus Mäkelä and the closing concert with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and Jakub Hrůša form a classical framework for a whole festival month in which classical music meets pop, jazz and dance.

Other highlights of the festival include the concert with Jan Vogler (cello) and Daniel Hope (violin) with Deutsches Sinfonieorchester Berlin under the direction of Anna Rakitina and performances by Sting and jazz singer Laufey.

As part of a special concert, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra will perform under the direction of Jaap Van Zweden with a new composition by Daniel Lo and pianist Alexandre Kantorow.

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