Salzburg Whitsun Festival

May 25 - 28, 2012

 

The idea of holding a festival in Salzburg outside of the summer season goes back to one of the early Salzburg Festival pioneers: in 1919 Hugo von Hofmannsthal suggested that the Festival should be held "each year during the summer, occasionally at other times, for example Christmas or during the winter as well as at Easter and Whitsuntide."

History

In 1973 Herbert von Karajan founded the first Whitsun concerts to meet the requests for tickets by potential Easter Festival subscribers. Three orchestral concerts were performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Herbert von Karajan each day on Whitsun Saturday, Sunday and Monday until 1982. Starting in 1983 the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra was also conducted by other maestros including Sir Georg Solti, Seiji Ozawa and André Previn.

Salzburg Whitsun Festival

Guest concerts by international orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra or the London Symphony Orchestra were added to the program after Herbert von Karajan's death. After 1989 the initial concept of  focusing the Whitsun concerts on works by Anton Bruckner was no longer upheld. In 1997 the "Whitsun Concerts" name was given to Baden-Baden to pave the way for a new concept in Salzburg: Salzburg's Whitsun Festival was born in 1998.

The Whitsun Festival today

Cecilia Bartoli, the new Artistic Director of the Whitsun Festival, has chosen Cleopatra, the legendary woman with a thousand faces, as the theme of her first program. The opulent musical journey includes a scenic opera production, a reading and many high-carat concerts with Anna Netrebko, Andreas Scholl, Vesselina Kasarova, Piotr Beczala and many other outstanding artists.