Moritzburg Festival 9-24 August 2014 | Composer-in-residence: David Philip Hefti (July 2014)

This summer, for the 21st time, young and established musicians such as Martin Stadtfeld, Lise de la Salle, Iskandar Widjaja, Daniel Ottensamer, Heinrich Schiff and many more will meet for the Moritzburg Festival to rehearse and perform chamber music near Dresden; initiated and directed by cellist Jan Vogler. Venues are the Baroque castle of Moritzburg, the famous Frauenkirche, but also a hangar of the Elbe aircraft factory.

This year’s composer-in-residence is Swiss Siemens Prize winner David Philip Hefti who wrote the Monumentum string sextet for the festival, a joint commission by the Moritzburg Festival, New York’s Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and the Käthe Kollwitz-Haus in Moritzburg.

“The composition ends with an extended Lamento on “Seed Fruit is not to be ground down”, a quote from Goethe’s “Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship”. Käthe Kollwitz occasionally employed these words as an argument for peace in this world, and furthermore created a litography with that title. I very much look forward to working with the festival artists around cellist Jan Vogler because due to its political and pacifist statement, my string sextet Monumentum is of special significance to me.”, said Hefti. The work will be premiered on 19 August.

You can find the festival program HERE.