On 31.08.2019 the 32nd season of the Rheingau Music Festival came to an end with Gustav Mahler’s 4th Symphony in the Basilica of Eberbach Monastery with the soprano Christiane Karg and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under the direction of chief conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla from Lithuania.
Mahler’s 4th Symphony is balm for the soul. It calms, decelerates and helps the listener to ,come down to earth´. The Basilica was the ideal place to make this happen on August 31, 2019.
Mahler’s contemporaries met this work, which was tranquil but enigmatic, with mixed feelings. It was difficult for him to comprehend that the deserved recognition did not take place until decades later. “Oh God, how long will it take for people to be able to hear this? I would like to run away best! And yet there is such a feeling of comfort, such a desire to stay in the work,” Mahler Mahler wrote to his wife Alma on 21 January 1903 after the performance of the Fourth Symphony in Wiesbaden/Hesse,Germany.
Last night, the performance of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, CBSO for short, one of the leading symphony orchestras in Great Britain, conducted by Mirga Grazinyté-Tyla from Lithuania, was impressive. At the age of 29, she caused a great stir when she became Principal Conductor of the orchestra. Energetically and powerfully she moved the baton and enchanted the audience in a very special way. Under her dynamic direction, the orchestra continues to expand its excellent reputation as an international orchestra.
The voice of the star soprano Christiane Karg has an outstanding sound with the slender, soft timbre and a supple mobility. As the focus artist of the Rheingau Music Festival, she was a central face of this festival summer and was to be experienced in a total of seven events with music from Mozart to Smith.
The 32nd season of the Rheingau Music Festival from 22 June to 31 August 2019 was marked by the motto “Courage”. 113 686 listeners visited the 146 events at 37 venues of the romantic Rheingau. For the first time, Telekom broadcast 360 Klassik on MagentaMusik. Three concerts were selected. The concert by violinist Janine Jansen with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, Carl Orff’s “Carmina burana” with Justus Franz, and the concert by pianist Jan Lisiecki with the Australian Youth Orchestra conducted by Krzysztof Urbański were all performed by the Deutsche Telekom. The streams are still available online: https://www.rheingau-musik-festival.de/festival/live/
The course has already been set for the coming season. The 33rd Rheingau Music Festival will open on 20 June 2020 and end on 5 September 2020. jwm