| Kissinger Sommer | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | classical music |
| Dates | June, July |
| Location(s) | Bad Kissingen |
| Coordinates | 50°11′53″N10°04′29″E / 50.1981°N 10.0746°E |
| Years active | 1986–present |
| Website | www |
The Kissinger Sommer is a classical music festival held every year in the summer in the city of Bad Kissingen in Bavaria, Southern Germany.
The festival was founded in 1986. At the beginning the focus of the festival was on the improvement of the cultural relations between eastern and western Europe. [1] Every year an east-european country was partner of the festival, beginning with Hungary in 1986. Poland, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union followed. So the festival became a place where one could see artists from east and west, especially of the partner-countries and of East-Germany. [2] Among the artists of the first years were Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Boris Pergamenschikow and Svjatoslav Richter. After the fall of the iron curtain the festival turned to a world-wide view with partner-countries in whole Europe, North America and China. [3] Every summer around 50 concerts are attracting about 30 000 visitors. [4] The occurring interpreters are a mixture of well-known international stars like Cecilia Bartoli, Arcadi Volodos, Fazıl Say or Grigory Sokolov, and newcomers, who often later have made a great career too, [5] like Lang Lang, Diana Damrau [6] or David Garrett. [7]
Director of the "Kissinger Sommer" from 1986 until 2016 was Kari Kahl-Wolfsjäger. [8] Her successor, beginning in 2017, was Tilman Schlömp, [9] formerly artistic director at the festival Beethovenfest in Bonn. He changed the concept of the festival. Instead of partner countries, there are now main topics, starting in 2017 with the motto "1830 – Romantic Revolution" [10] [11] and followed in 2018 by "1918 – emergence of the modern age". [12] The contract of Schlömp ended in 2021. Alexander Steinbeis, previously orchestra director of the DSO Berlin, was appointed as his successor from 2022 on. [13]
In 2020 the festival was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. [14]
From the beginning the festival is also a place for contemporary composers like Alfred Schnittke, Sofia Gubaidulina, Edison Denisov, Aribert Reimann or Wolfgang Rihm. [15] There have been world premieres of composers like Jean Françaix (Dixtuor, in 1987 [16] ), Krzysztof Penderecki (Sinfonietta No. 2 for clarinet and string orchestra, in 1994) [17] and Fazıl Say (Sonata for clarinet and piano, op. 42, in 2012). [18] Since 2006 composers present themselves and premieres of their music in the workshop Bad Kissinger Liederwerkstatt. [19] Up to 2018, around 80 world premieres have already been produced as part of the Liederwerkstatt. [20] However, there are also world premieres outside the Liederwerkstatt, such as the Concerto No. 1 for violin and orchestra by Gediminas Gelgotas in 2018 [21] and in 2019 a new version of the opera "Orfeo ed Euridice" by Damian Scholl . [22]
Artists-in-residence have been in the last years:
Every year since 1999 the Luitpoldpreis (Luitpold Prize) is awarded to a young interpreter of the festival. The prize is named after Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria, who let build the great Bad Kissingen concert hall Regentenbau , where many of the concerts of the festival take place. The winners are: [31]
The festival is connected to the Kissinger Klavierolymp (Kissinger Piano Olympics), a competition of young pianists which takes place in autumn in Bad Kissingen since 2003. The prize for the winners is a performance at the Kissinger Sommer. Among them are Martin Helmchen, Nikolai Tokarev, Kirill Gerstein, Igor Levit, Alice Sara Ott and Kit Armstrong. [41] Among the last winners are Elisabeth Brauß (2016), [42] [43] Emre Yavuz (2017) [44] [45] and Juan Pérez Floristán (2018). [46]
Mariss Ivars Georgs Jansons was a Latvian conductor, best known for his interpretations of Mahler, Strauss, and Russian composers such as Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Shostakovich. During his lifetime he was often cited as among the world's leading conductors; in a 2015 Bachtrack poll, he was ranked by music critics as the world's third best living conductor. Jansons was long associated with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra as music director.
Bad Kissingen is a German spa town in the Bavarian region of Lower Franconia and seat of the district Bad Kissingen. Situated to the south of the Rhön Mountains on the Franconian Saale river, it is one of the health resorts, which became famous as a "Weltbad" in the 19th century.
Aribert Reimann was a German composer, pianist, and accompanist, known especially for his literary operas. His version of Shakespeare's King Lear, the opera Lear, was written at the suggestion of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who performed the title role. His opera Medea after Grillparzer's play premiered in 2010 at the Vienna State Opera. He was a professor of contemporary Lied in Hamburg and Berlin. In 2011, he was awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize for his life's work.
Konstantin Shamray is a Russian pianist. Shamray was born in Novosibirsk and began musical-schooling at the age of six in the Kemerovo Music School with Natalia Knobloch. From 1996 he continued his studies in Moscow at the Gnessin Special School of Music, later at the Russian Gnessin Academy of Music with Tatiana Zelikman and Vladimir Tropp, and then at Musikhochschule Freiburg with Tibor Szasz.
Behzod Abduraimov is an Uzbek pianist. A former student of Van Cliburn International Piano Competition gold medalist Stanislav Ioudenitch at Park University's International Center for Music (ICM), he was described by The Independent as "the most perfectly accomplished pianist of his generation". Abduraimov won the London International Piano Competition in 2009 at the age of 18, which launched his career. He continues to perform internationally in solo recitals, chamber music performances, and as soloist with leading orchestras such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Mariinsky Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Sydney Symphony Orchestra under such conductors as Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Manfred Honeck, Vasily Petrenko, James Gaffigan, Jakub Hrůša, Thomas Dausgaard and Vladimir Jurowski.
David Afkham is a German conductor.
Claire Huangci is an American classical pianist. She lives in Frankfurt am Main.
Igor Levit is a Russian-German pianist who focuses on the works of Bach, Beethoven, and Liszt. He is also a professor at the Musikhochschule Hannover. He lives in Berlin.
Martin James Bartlett is an English classical pianist who has twice reached the keyboard finals of the BBC Young Musician of the Year contest, winning the competition in 2014.
Juan Pérez Floristán is a Spanish classical pianist.
Chi Ho Han is a South Korean pianist.
Julian Miles Trevelyan is a British pianist and musicologist who won international competitions, such as the Long-Thibaud-Crespin Competition in Paris in 2015 at age 16.
Ulrich Wilhelm is a German lawyer and journalist who has been serving as director of the Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) since 2011.
Dasol Kim is a South Korean pianist.
Elisabeth Brauss is a German pianist.
Alexey Zuev, born 28 April 1982 in Leningrad, is a Russian pianist.
Daniel Behle is a German classical composer and operatic tenor. He has performed at international opera houses and festivals, and has recorded both operas and Lieder recitals.
Konstantía Gourzí is a Greek composer and conductor. She is professor of ensemble conducting and new music at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich.
The Naghash Ensemble is a contemporary music ensemble from Armenia featuring three female singers, duduk, oud, dhol and piano. They perform new music written by Armenian-American composer John Hodian based on sacred texts by the medieval Armenian mystic poet and priest, Mkrtich Naghash. Described as "The sound of ancient Armenia reinvented for the 21st century" by Armenian composer Tigran Mansurian, Hodian's "Songs of Exile" combines "the earthy spirituality of Armenian folk song, new classical music, contemporary post-minimalism and the energy of rock and jazz".
Sung Min Song is a South Korean operatic tenor who has performed internationally, based in Germany. He is focused on Italian opera and 19th-century oratorios including Puccini's Messa di Gloria and Verdi's Requiem. A member of the Saarländisches Staatstheater from 2017, he is capable of performing tenor roles with a high tessitura such as Arnold in Rossini's Guillaume Tell.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
