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.
In the “Night of the Young Stars”, special up-and-coming artists will take the stage, selected in advance by musical mentors (e.g. Till Brönner, trumpet; Sarah Willis, horn; Nils Landgren, trombone).
World premieres at the festival include Philip Lasser‘s “The Art of Memory” (commissioned by Dresdner Musikfestspiele and Newport Classical) played by Anton Mejias (piano), Hannah Ishizaki‘s Sonata for Violin, premiered by Nathan Meltzer and the Handpan Concerto by Cassie Kinoshi, premiered by Elena Urioste (violin) and the Chineke! Orchestra.
The electro-pop duo Ätna and Dresdner Kapellsolisten create a special concert experience in which the boundaries of classical music are explored and confronted with pop and electronic sounds.
Johann Sebastian Bach meets African folk songs with Abel Selaocoe (cello) and the Bantu Ensemble, while singers Jane Monheit and Stacy Kent each promise top-class jazz evenings.
In addition, “The Wagner Cycles” which launched earlier this year with Richard Wagner’s “Das Rheingold” will be continued with “Die Walküre”. The Dresdner Festspielorchester and Concerto Köln under the direction of Kent Nagano will bring “Die Walküre” in a concert production in historical performance practice to the stage.
Other first-class musicians and orchestras in the program: The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Manfred Honeck with Daniel Lozakovich (violin), Philippe Herreweghe and the Collegium Vocale Gent as well as Igor Levit (piano), Jeanine de Bique (soprano) and Anoushka Shankar (sitar).
On the website of the Dresdner Musikfestspiele, you will find the full program with 60 events in 21 venues, including 12 debuts and 4 world premieres and also the festival brochure to download.