New structure at the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music
Last but not least, this “adaptation of the previous structure” makes it possible to “further develop what has proven itself”, said State Councilor for Culture Beate Palfrader (ÖVP) on Monday at a press conference in Innsbruck. She left no doubt that it should continue to be about the “promotion of historical performance practice”, as demonstrated under the festival directors René Jacobs and the now retiring Alessandro De Marchi.
Mayor Georg Willi (Greens) hopes that the festival will remain “up to date”. The forthcoming change in the festival structure, in which the previous festival director Eva-Maria Sens will act as artistic director in future, is therefore extremely positive, according to Willi. Above all, the green leader of the Tyrolean state capital wants to see the “exchange between teachers and learners” and the “Cesti competition” even more promoted in the coming years.
The current and future commercial director, Markus Lutz, also expressed wishes for the future of the festival. “It’s about picking up new strands and offering the musical director a platform for artistic ideas,” said Lutz. Fortunately, in Dantone, in a selection process involving two baroque music experts, they were able to win a “significant musical personality,” says Lutz. The 61-year-old harpsichordist, pianist and conductor has been musical director of the Accademia Bizantina in Ravenna since 1996 and has made guest appearances with them at the Theater an der Wien and also at the Innsbruck Festival. In 2016 he conducted the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg at the “Cosi fan tutte” revival of the Salzburg Festival.
In order for the festival to remain “a jewel”, as the future artistic director Eva-Maria Sens put it, it needs people like Dantone who are “virtuoso and visionary”, according to her. He is a “charismatic leader” and also a guarantor for “contemporary interpretations”, according to Sens.
Finally, Dantone, to whom Sens gave advance roses, also promised to “find the emotions in the scores” and occasionally “to provoke and challenge” the audience. At the same time, he is also concerned with “not putting the musician before the composer”. Only when the same person understood what he wanted to express was it time “to break free and to be free,” says Dantone.
(SERVICE – https://www.altemusik.at)