Salzburg Easter Festival

The Salzburg Easter Festival was founded by Herbert von Karajan in 1967 as a means of expanding the traditional Salzburg Festival held in August. The Easter Festival rapidly grew to become an exclusive and artistically brilliant festival. Elaborate new opera productions and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra's extensive orchestral repertoire contributed to the Salzburg Easter Festival's renown from the very beginning.

Concept
Herbert von Karajan's fundamental idea in establishing the Easter Festival was to expand upon the festival concept in Salzburg, although the Easter Festival was never intended to be an offshoot of the Summer Festival but a festival that would develop its own personal profile. This was facilitated by first-class directors, high-caliber musicians and elaborate productions.

The Salzburg Easter Festival today
The Festival begins each year on the Saturday before Palm Sunday with the opera premiere and ends on Easter Monday, when the opera is traditionally performed a second time. Six evenings of three concerts each with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra are scheduled in between. Special concerts and the Kontrapunkte concerts are also on the program, some featuring soloists from the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra as well as other ensembles, usually offering points of contact to the opera and the orchestral concerts.

 

The future of the Salzburg Easter Festival

The Salzburg Easter Festival is one of the world's most renowned and most exclusive festivals for classical music. The festival was founded by Herbert von Karajan who demanded highest artistical quality without any compromise - which has remained the main priority until today. In 2013, the Staatskapelle Dresden will become the main orchestra of the Easter Festival. They are taking over this part from the Berlin Philharmonic that have been the musical basement of the festival since 1967. In the same year Sir Simon Rattle will pass over his function as artistical director of the Easter Festival to Maestro Christian Thielemann. He was once the musial assistent of Herbert von Karajan and will become the main director of Staatskapelle Dresden in 2012.

The Program 2012

 

Download here the program of the Easter Festival 2012.