The Dresden Music Festival presented stars of the classical music scene and promising talents from all over the world at a "Long Night of the Cello". Including two breaks, the musicians played in various formations for more than four and a half hours through the cello literature from Antonio Vivaldi, Luigi Boccherini and Johann Sebastian Bach to Robert Schumann, Sergei Rachmaninov, Freddie Mercury and the Beatles. At the end, the performers were celebrated like pop stars.
"Yesterday" as an encore
In the first surprise, Vogler himself took up the instrument and paid tribute to the Brazilian cellist Antonio Meneses, who died in 2024, with a piece from "Don Quixote" by Richard Strauss. The second surprise was reserved for a movement from a Bach suite - interpreted by the Swiss Christian Poltéra. After all, a night like this could not do without Bach, said Vogler. For the finale, all 16 soloists harmonized on "Yesterday" by the Beatles.
The "Long Night" brought together numerous prizewinners of international cello competitions, including the South Korean Hayoung Choi, the Canadian Luka Coetzee, Alisa Weilerstein and Zlatomir Fung from the USA, the Chinese Lila, the Frenchman Edgar Moreau and the Finn Senja Rummukainen. Germany was represented by Marie-Elisabeth Hecker, Friederike Herold, Daniel Müller-Schott and Jan Vogler. They all had their cellos by legendary instrument makers such as Giuseppe Cuarneri, Antonio Stradivari and Domenico Montagnana with them.
This year's Dresden Music Festival has the motto "Lightness of Being" and runs until June 14. As a "festival within a festival", Vogler is offering "Cellomania" for the third time, the highlight of which was the "Long Night of the Cello". A total of 30 renowned cellists will be guests at the music festival.
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