Salzburg Culture Days celebrate their 50th anniversary
The Salzburg Cultural Association celebrates a triple anniversary in 2022. The cultural association was founded 75 years ago, and the orchestra has had its estimated radius of action for 60 years. The Culture Days have been taking place in October for 50 years.
For the anniversary, the Salzburg Cultural Association is once again setting an example for the diversity and quality standards of the annual culture days with the almost four-week music festival from September 28th to October 23rd, 2022. Despite various difficulties, the organizers want to make themselves strong and fight on, especially in this time, in order to continue to make their contribution in Salzburg and to show that culture is possible. The festival for everyone, for the people of Salzburg as well as for those arriving from the neighboring regions, offers an intensive anniversary program with a wide range of well-known soloists.
Resumption of the opera tradition
The 75th anniversary of the cultural association will be celebrated during the culture days with the anniversary concert »75 Years of the Salzburg Cultural Association« with works by Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Bernstein. It is conducted by Yutaka Sado, the soloist is the pianist Fazil Say. In the anniversary year, the Salzburg Culture Days are reviving their long-standing operatic tradition – after several years without an opera. In cooperation with the Salzburg State Theater, »Der Rosenkavalier« by Richard Strauss will be performed with Leslie Suganandarajah conducting, and Roland Schwab will be directing. It premieres on October 1st with four subsequent performances through October 23rd.
The Austrian composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold, child prodigy in Vienna and successful film composer in Los Angeles, will be honored on the occasion of his 125th birthday with the performance of his violin concerto. This is combined with music by Antonín Dvorák, Leoš Janácek and Ralph Vaughan Williams. The musical director is Dennis Russel Davies, the soloist is the violinist Milan Pala. The 80th anniversary of the legendary performance of Dmitri Shostakovich’s »Leningrader« in besieged Leningrad is also commemorated in connection with the famous victims.
anniversary revue
The Sunday matinee “60 Years Orchestra of the Salzburg Cultural Association” on October 2 will be complemented by music by Ludwig van Beethoven. In the evening of the day it’s “Pasión Tango – The Story” with Fritz Karl as speaker, Friederich Kleinhapl, cello and Andreas Woyke, piano. »Philharmonix« consists of »The Vienna Berlin Music Club« with renowned orchestral soloists from the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic. “The Vienna Brass Connection” consists of 17 brass players and 3 percussionists and offers a colorful program with “Open Minded”. The five-piece men’s choir Herrmann offers an extraordinary anniversary revue. The “Music: Kaleidoscope” with a music lecture by Thomas Heissbauer deals with Stravinsky’s “Firebird”.
A special format is “Classic + Culinary Art”, with Roland Essl cooking a 4-course menu as an accompaniment to Mozart’s “A Musical Fun”. In the Kavaliershaus Klessheim, the Mozarteum Quartet provides the music for Roland Essl’s cooking skills. The guests are served a kind of “cooked choreography” to the music.
The cathedral concert brings Joseph Haydn’s Harmoniemesse in B flat major with cathedral music director János Czifra and cathedral organist Heribert Metzger. At the end of October 19-21 Jean Sibelius’ first symphony will be performed under the direction of Osmo Vänskä. The soloist is Nicolas Altstaedt with cello concertos by Robert Schumann and William Walton. In addition to the local orchestra of the cultural association, guest orchestras are the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Filharmonie Brno and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. Venues are the Great Festival Hall, the Felsenreitschule, the House for Mozart, the Great University Auditorium, the SZENE Salzburg, the Cathedral, the Kavaliershaus Klessheim and the Trakl House.
All events can now be booked. For all concert-goers under the age of 27, a ticket costs 13 euros. As a novelty, there are two culture days subscriptions with a choice between three and five events. Information is available online at www.kulturvereinigung.com.
Elizabeth Aumiller