mozart@augsburg Festival 2014, Music as a Refuge

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart © Creative Commons

Mozart and Augsburg – at first glance, they do not seem to belong together. In its third year, the mozart@augsburg Festival is again challenging this way of thinking with the goal of raising public awareness of important historical influences. Not only was the father, Leopold Mozart, born in Augsburg, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart also spent formative periods of time in the city of the Fugger family. More than almost any other city of that day, Augsburg’s cosmopolitan, liberal atmosphere offered the Mozarts fertile ground. Wolfgang Amadeus laid the intellectual foundations for his later career in Augsburg.

In this spirit, pianist and artistic director Sebastian Knauer launched a festival offering a varied and ambitious programme of thirteen concerts featuring orchestral and chamber music which offers a new approach and presents outstanding artists at distinctive performance venues in Augsburg, such as the Kleiner Goldener Saal (Small Golden Hall), St. Ulrich’s Church and the Bannacker Manor House.Mozart is naturally the centrepiece of the programme. On 5 September 2014 Sebastian Knauer, Daniel Hope, Lawrence Power and the Festival Strings Lucerne open the festival with a gala concert devoted to him. A piano recital with Rudolf Buchbinder and a concert by the Hagen Quartet as the finale also feature works by Mozart. Other internationally acclaimed performers appearing at the festival include Renaud Capuçon and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, David Finckel and Wu Han, Arcadi Volodos and Les Vents Français, with Emmanuel Pahud, François Leleux, Paul Meyer, Gilbert Audin, Radovan Vlatković and Éric le Sage.

A special concert on 4 September, the day before the official opening of mozart@augsburg, with mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter and violinist Daniel Hope will commemorate the 75th anniversary of World War II and the Holocaust. Under the title Music as a Refuge, works composed by Jewish composers at the Theresienstadt concentration camp will be heard.

The synthesis of music and the spoken word will be the focus of other programmes during the festival. Although Alfred Brendel has retired from the stage as a pianist, in a fireside chat with Wolfgang Knauer he will offer insights into his eventful life, and during a literary concert he will read from his own books, accompanied on the cello by his son, Adrian Brendel. In the programme All About Gidon, Gidon Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica reflect on the world of a superstar of classical music, presenting works by composers ranging from Johann Sebastian Bach to Astor Piazzolla.

The festival has an ongoing commitment to introducing new generations to Mozart. In cooperation with the Augsburg Puppet Theatre, actress Martina Gedeck and Sebastian Knauer celebrate the 200th anniversary of Children’s and Household Tales, the collection of German fairy tales published by the Brothers Grimm, in words, music and a staged puppet show. For the first time this year, at a musical party in the countryside the festival presents Rising Stars, a platform for young artists which will be a regular feature of the festival programme.