Dresden: 2007 Music Festival
Germany, Dresden

Dresden: 2007 Music Festival


From Bach to Richard Strauss

Although Dresden’s musical tradition is old and highly prestigious, it is also one of the liveliest, between musicological research and the avant-garde. In this respect the Dresden Music Festival is particularly significant, but let’s start with a bit of history…
 
Rather than Leipzig, Bach would have preferred to be appointed in Dresden as composer of the court of Saxony under much better working and wage conditions. It was not for want of trying, but his attempts to convince the sovereigns of Saxony proved fruitless. There nevertheless remains the manuscript of the Mass in B Minor conserved at the SLUB (university library of the Land of Saxony). Dresden also keeps alive the memory of a concert that he gave on the Silbermann Organ at the newly built Frauenkirche, on 1st December 1736. As part of the 2007 Festival, Bernard Haas will interpret organ works by Bach, Händel, Alkan and Xenakison the new instrument made by the organ builder from Alsace, Daniel Kern.

Steinberger Hotel de Saxe

It is now possible to stay in the historic centre with a view of the Frauenkirche, since the opening of the Steinberger Hotel de Saxe in May 2006. Built on the site of the old Hotel de Saxe, which was destroyed in the bombings of 13th February 1945, the new building sports a classic façade but contemporary interior architecture and resolutely modern and functional decor.
 
Music lovers will no doubt be interested to learn that when he arrived in Dresden in 1807, Carl Maria von Weber stayed in this establishment and, above all, that on 4th December 1845 Clara Schumann performed her husband’s most famous work here for the first time: Piano Concerto in A Minor.
 
178 rooms from €119 and 7 suites.
 
www.desaxe-dresden.steigenberger.de

Dresden Opera House
© Christoph Münch / Dresden-Werbung und Tourismus GmbH

Carl Maria von Weber is probably Dresden’s most emblematic composer: he lived here for ten years and his work at the head of the Dresden Opera House (from 1817) and the creation of the Freischutz (in 1821 in Berlin and 1822 in Dresden) heralded Wagner. Weber died in 1826 during a trip to London and it was Wagner who organised the return of his ashes 18 years later. His tomb, designed by Gottfried Semper, is in the old Catholic cemetery.
 
Wagner’s time in Dresden, like everywhere else, was incredibly turbulent. A few key dates: in January 1843, the premiere of The Flying Dutchman; in February the same year, he obtained the prestigious post of court conductor; he became friends with Gottfried Semper who built the Dresden Opera House from 1838 to 1841, foreshadowing the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth. In 1845, the first performance of Tannhäuser and he began Lohengrin… In short everything was going swimmingly until once again Wagner dabbled in politics and took part in the revolution of 1849 in Dresden. The disturbance was put down and the composer forced into exile but Tannhäuser and Lohengrin were nevertheless henceforth regularly in the repertoire of the Dresden Opera House.
Another exceptionally gifted local boy was Robert Schumann, born in Zwickau in Saxony. He settled in Dresden with Clara and their three children from 1844. The years 1845 to 1848 were Schumann’s most productive but had little effect on his career; he had to make do with a post as choirmaster.
 
The last great composer associated with Dresden is Richard Strauss, many of whose operas were performed for the first time in the capital of Saxony: Feuersnot, Salome, Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier… Once again a legacy that the Dresden Opera House and Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden keep alive by regular performances.

The gentle fizz of the beer

According to legend, Richard Strauss, whose name is associated with Dresden [see other article], good food and beer – his wife was from a family of Bavarian brewers – maintained that he could set a glass of beer to music in such a way that people could tell whether it was a Kulmbacher or a Pilsner. Speaking of which, the local beer is Radeberger, which is none other than a Pilsner and the oldest one at that, since it was at the origin of the brand.
The Deutsches Hygiene-Museum
© E. Boucher/ViaMichelin

Music in a wide variety of settings

Despite the crushing weight of history, the great merit of this festival, contrary to others, is not to be rooted in only a few emblematic places such as the opera house, Zwinger and Frauenkirche or in a conventional repertoire.
 
The last festival, in 2006, gave us a few examples of this, such as the creation of Passage, a contemporary opera by Eckehard Mayer in Dresden’s new synagogue, a building of refined design erected on the site of the old synagogue destroyed by the Nazis in 1938.
 
Another unconventional place is the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, a construction in the neo-Classical style of the 1930s devoted to the hygiene of German man first of all, then national-socialist man, then socialist man during the GDR era and finally post-modern man… Which nonetheless makes for a perfectly interesting museum with one interesting feature in particular: “the glass man” (1930), which illustrates the structure and functions of the human body. It is in this amazing place that an oratorio by Franz Seydelmann (1748-1806), La Morte d’Abel, unearthed from the SLUB (university library of the Land of Saxony), was performed in opera form and in a very contemporary style.
 
Concerts also take place in the old Yenidze tobacco factory, built in the oriental style of the Taj Mahal, and in the churches and castles of small villages on the banks of the Elbe…
 
* 1 euro is worth approximately GBP 0.68

Highlights of the 'Dresdner Musik Festspiele 2007'

The Seasons, oratorio by Joseph Haydn
Dresdner Philharmonie, MDR Rundfunkchor, Dresdner Chöre. Rebecca Evans (soprano), Stig Andersen (Tenor)
Peter Mikulás¡ (Bass)
Conductor: Hartmut Haenchen
Thursday 17 May at 8 pm in Kreuzkirche
 
Concerto for violin and orchestra N°1 by Karol Szymanowski
Symphony N°1 in mi mineur  by Jean Sibelius
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Christian Tetzlaff (Violin)
Conductor: Leif Segerstam
Friday 18 May at 8 pm at the Semperoper
 
Alfred Brendel recital: 'Viennese musical scenery'
Joseph Haydn: Sonata for piano in ut minor Hob. XVI
Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata for piano N° 31 As-Dur op.110
Franz Schubert: Impromptus N°1 f-Moll, N° 3 B-Dur op. 142 posth. D 935
W. A. Mozart: Sonata for piano in ut minor KV 457
Saturday 19 May at 8 pm at the Semperoper
 
Readings by Alfred Brendel
The pianist, who is also a writer and author of essays on music and poetry, will read some of his works on Sunday 20 May at 11 am at Albrechtsberg Castle.
 
Tannhäuser by Richard Wagner
Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden
Conductor: Christof Prick
Producer: Peter Konwitschny
Sunday 20 May at 6 pm at the Semperoper
 
The Abduction from the Seraglio by W. A. Mozart
Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden
Conductor: Klauspeter Seibel
Producer: Marco Arturo Marelli
Monday 21 May at 7 pm at the Semperoper
 
Piano recital byJuho Pohjonen
Carl Nielsen: Chaconne op. 32/FS 79
Edvard Grieg: Lyrical pieces including 'To the spring', 'Nocturne', etc.
Jean Sibelius: 5 pieces for piano op. 75
Erkki Salmenhaara: Sonata N° 4
Esa-Pekka Salonen: Dichotomy
Monday 21 May at 8 pm at the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum
 
Turandot by Giacomo Puccini
Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden
Conductor: Jun Märkl
Producer: Andreas Homoki
Tuesday 22 May  at 7 pm at the Semperoper
 
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Ballet to the music of  Felix Mendelsohn and György Ligeti
Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden
Conductor: Vello Pähn
Choreographer: John Neumeier
Wednesday 23 May at 7 pm at the Semperoper
 
Organ recital by Bernhard Haas
Works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Friedrich Händel, Charles Valentin Alkan, Iannis Xenakis
Wednesday 23 May at 8 pm in Frauenkirche
 
Leipzig cord quartet (Leipziger Streichquartett)
Charles E. Ives: cord quartet N° 2
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: cord quartet N° 5
Saturday 26 May at 4 pm in Proschwitz Castle
 
'Alpine symphony in images'
Animated photos by Tobias Melle to the music of Richard Strauss
Jean Sibelius: Finlandia  op. 26
Karol Szymanowsk: 3 pieces taken from the ballet Harnasie
National symphonic orchestra  of the Polish Radio in Katowice
Conductor: Gabriel Chmura
Saturday 26 May at 9 pm at the Japanese Palace
 
To access the full festival programme: http://www.musikfestspiele.com/cms/en/home
Available only in German unfortunately.

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