This year, the Moritzburg Chamber Music Festival is embarking on a musical river journey. In 20 concerts, 26 musicians from around the world will take the audience on a journey from the Neva, through the Vltava, Elbe, Danube, and Seine, all the way to the Mississippi. “On the terrace of Moritzburg Castle, our music becomes part of nature and architecture; even the geese on the castle pond have their say,” says festival director Jan Vogler, describing the atmosphere.
Longtime festival guests and newcomers
The musicians will perform in various ensembles. In addition to long-time festival guests such as violinist Mira Wang and her colleague Kai Vogler, the program also features violist Nils Mönkemeyer and pianist Lise de la Salle, among others. Numerous artists are making their Moritzburg debut, including pianists Marie Sophie Hauzel and Anton Gerzenberg, violinists Guido Sant’Anna and Josef Spaček, Laura Liu (viola), and cellists Astrig Siranossian and Camille Thomas.
Festival Academy with young artists from 19 countries
Running parallel to the festival is the 21st Moritzburg Festival Academy, featuring 41 young men and women from 19 nations. They form the Moritzburg Festival Orchestra under the baton of its Spanish chief conductor, Josep Caballé Domenech. The highlight is an orchestral concert on August 22 at the Kulturpalast in Dresden, where the academy participants will perform Mozart’s Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra in F Major, K. 293, with oboist Albrecht Mayer as soloist in its Dresden premiere. Only a fragment of the first movement of the piece had survived; it was completed by Gotthard Odermatt.
On August 16, the Academy Orchestra will also perform at the music picnic in the park of Proschwitz Castle, and the following day, they will give a concert on the north terrace of Moritzburg Castle—the festival’s main stage. On August 21, the Academy will perform at the König Albert Theater in Bad Elster in the Vogtland region.
