Having just returned from a trip to Munich today, I found the new program for the Salzburg Festival 2007 in my mailbox! As you probably all know the festival has a new artistic director (Jürgen Flimm). Since Flimm is a opera/theater person he has put Markus Hinterhäuser in charge for the concert events at the festival. Hinterhäuser, who is a pianist with a predilection for contemporary music, was one of the founders of the Zeitfluss Festival and curated parts of the Dialoge Festival at Salzburg. The programs at this new festival were so fascinating that everyone eagerly awaited the progamming he would come up with for the big festival during the summer. And indeed the summer program exceeds all expectations. Let’s take a closer look.

There are two thematic centers of gravity around which the rest of the program rotates: First, Kontinent Scelsi, a series of eight concert with music by Giacinto Scelsi and related composers. Second, Schumann-Szenen, five concerts tracing Schumann’s influence on contemporary music throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The first Schumann-Szenen concert features Thomas Zehetmair (for those of you who don’t know his recording of the Bach Sonatas and Partitas make sure you put it on your christmas wishlist) and Pierre-Laurent Aimard. The program oscillates between Schumann (Gesänge der Frühe, op. 133; Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1, op. 105; Sonata for Violin and Piano, No. 2, op. 121) and pieces by Heinz Holliger (Vier Lieder ohne Worte), Eugene Ysaye (Sonata L’Aurore), and George Crumb (Four Nocturnes, Night Music). The fourth concert juxtaposes Schumann (Piano Trio, No. 2, op. 80), Brahms (Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, No. 2, op. 120), and Kurtak (Hommage a R. Sch., op. 15d and selections from Jaketok in a version for accordion).

The Kontinent Scelsi series presents two evenings with the Basel Sinfonietta. The first program featuring several Scelsi pieces for orchestra and Beata viscera by Perotin, and the second evening with a performance of Gerard Grisey’s fabulous Les Espaces Acoustiques. There is some more Grisey on the program: First, in a concert with Les Percussions de Strasbourg (Le Noir de L’etoile) in which there will be projections of astronomical signs, and later during the week in what promises to become a memorable evening with the Klangforum Wien (Scelsi: Okanagon; Tristan Murail: Desintegration; Scelsi: Anahit; Grisey: Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil). The Ensemble Modern will present a program with pieces by James Tenney, György Ligeti, and Georg Friedrich Haas (remember? he’s the one whose music sounds like a calculator hooked up to loudspeakers…). The big surprize in this year’s festival is surely a concert with the jazz, rock, and punk guitarist Marc Ribot whom many of you will recognize as the counterpoint genius on Tom Wait’s Swordfishtrombones. This special performance will alternate compositions by Scelsi with pieces from Marc Ribot’s album Scelsi Morning. The Scelsi week concludes with an improvisation that will be interspersed between pieces by Scelsi for trombone, guitar (Ko-Tha), and doublebass (Le Reveil).

As customary, the festival features the Vienna Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic in several concerts. Of these I’d like to single out the first concert of the Vienna Philharmonic which features Franz Welser-Möst and Alfred Brendel. I heard Welser-Möst in Berlin a couple of times and was especially impressed with his interpretation of Alban Berg’s Lulu Suite: passionately from afar. This time he will conduct Ligeti’s Lontano, a contemporary classic. The other interesting concert in this category is the fifth concert of the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Daniel Barenboim with Bartok’s Musik für Saiteninstrumente, Ligeti’s Atmospheres, George Enescu’s Romanian Rhapsody, and Kodaly’s Dances from Galanta. Apart from this concert, Daniel Baremboim will also take the opportunity to promote his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra project at the festival. Let’s see how that will go…

What else is on the menue? The Israel Philharmonic and Gil Shaham with Berg’s Violin Concerto and Mahler’s 7th Symphony. Berio’s Rendering and his transcription of the Sechs frühe Lieder by Mahler. The Camerata Salzburg under Ingo Metzmacher giving Berg’s Lyrical Suite, Wagner’s Wesendonk Lieder (with Angelika Kirchschlager), and Schumann’s 4th Symphony. In their third concert they will perform together with Christine Schäfer: Schönberg: Verklärte Nacht; Mahler/Schönberg: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (transcription for small ensemble by Schönberg); Schubert/Mahler: Der Tod und das Mädchen.
More concert programs can be found at the festival website.