Friends Hans Neuenfels Thank you, Bernhard Paumgartner! Invisible Woman Macbeth Fall of the Gods Jenufa Lady Macbeth Schostakowitsch Ariadne auf Naxos Le Nozze di Figaro Così fan tutte Don Carlo, Falstaff Die Fledermaus Concert 2001 Narrated Music Shir Ha Shirim Notes Paumgartner Musically insured who am i...?

Helga Rabl-Stadler

Thank you, Bernhard Paumgartner!

"One gains friends by inviting them graciously into one's house, showing them the best of one's possessions and talking a lot about wishes and dreams". Bernhard Paumgartner welcomed the Friends of the Salzburg Festival with these words at their first ever meeting on 10 January 1962.

The highly regarded Mozart scholar Bernhard Paumgartner was one of the co-founders of the Salzburg Festival, together with Max Reinhardt and Richard Strauss, and he also founded the Camerata Academica. Paumgartner brought the Friends Association into being, in order to create an "ideal public who feel a close personal attachment to the achievements of the Festival and are kindly disposed towards helping it to thrive."

Bernhard Paumgartner Photo: SF/Ellinger

For forty years the Friends of the Salzburg Festival have been fulfilling this idea in practice. The Camerata has maintained and extended its renown as an excellent orchestra. This year they are playing in the opera pit for the performances of Figaro and performing a cycle of concerts with works by Beethoven and Schoenberg on the programme.

The end of July marks the 30th anniversary of the death of the loved and admired mentor Bernhard Paumgartner. The Festival had only just begun when, on the evening of 27 July 1971 during the premiere of Alban Berg's Wozzeck in the Grosses Festspielhaus, the shattering news came of Bernhard Paumgartner's death. He had been president of the Salzburg Festival since 1960. Max Kaindl-Hönig wrote in Paumgartner's obituary: "It was the slow extinguishing of a figure who had drawn an inner richness of life from over eight decades of experience, communication and individual, original achievements, without noticeably tiring until almost near the end of his life. Indeed he hardly lost anything of his youthful vitality even in old age - always ready to start something new he conveyed an infectious enthusiasm". Remain young in heart, open for what is new, allow ourselves to be enthusiastic and convey that to others - Bernhard Paumgartner lived out this conviction. May it guide and continue to support us, the Salzburg Festival and its friends. For this we thank the master and the musician.

Of the Serenity of the Spirit

Musical commemoration for Bernhard Paumgartner
on 30 July 2001 in the Mozarteum.
If you would like to attend, please call the Friends Office at 0043 662 8045 284.