Helga Rabl-Stadler
Programme tour
For the first time the Salzburg Festival went on a “road show”, or expressed in more classical terms, we presented the programme for 2004 in various European cities. The idea came from the Friends Association and we are grateful to president Heinrich Spängler and Brigitte Ritter.
Festival
President Helga Rabl-Stadler
We started the tour at home in front of 300 Salzburgers in the Schüttkasten.
The next station was Zurich. The Mozarteum Quartet was in excellent form and the Zunfthaus Zur Meisen provided a unique setting for a festive evening.
In London the presentation took place in the Austrian Embassy. Violinist David Frühwirth played works by Erich Wolfgang Korngold who is at the centre of this summer’s programme. The accompanist played on the piano which Korngold used during the 1920s when, together with Max Reinhardt, he made an arrangement of Offenbach’s La Belle Hélène for London.
In Vienna we again enjoyed the magnificent surroundings of the cupola hall in the Kunsthistorisches Museum.
Taking our cue from the forthcoming opening up of Eastern
Europe and together with one of our sponsors, the insurance company Uniqa,
we visited Prague and Budapest. Dagmar Pecková in Prague gave a
special foretaste of our focus on works by Antonín Dvorák
in the extensive series of concerts commemorating the 100th anniversary
of his death.
Members of the Vienna Philharmonic gave a noble touch to our presentation
in Budapest. They too took reference from our programme and performed
a piece by György Kurtág, one of this year’s composers
in residence.
The final presentation of the Festival programme will take place in Chicago, where, together with Angela Denoke, who sings Marietta in this summer’s performances of Die tote Stadt, I will extend festival greetings from Salzburg to our American friends. Photographs of the stations visited so far are reproduced in this issue starting here.
If you have a special idea, a special place or a special occasion where, from November 2005, you would like to see the Salzburg Festival programme for 2005 presented in your city, please do contact us. We could arrange a meeting of the friends of the Salzburg Festival outside Salzburg!
Helga Rabl-Stadler