As every year, the Classical Music Marathon was a fixture at the Rheingau Music Festival in 2025. Every year, young up-and-coming musicians are given the opportunity to present themselves to the international music and festival world. Many young musicians who made their debut here have gone on to become international stars. The Rheingau, with its castles and palaces, churches, monasteries, and wineries, is not only considered the home of delicious wines, but also, with the festival, a springboard for great musical careers.
This festival summer featured Hana Chang (violin), the duo Carlo Lay (cello) and Ana Bakradze (piano), Simon Haje (piano), the duo Benjamin Lukas Bächler (saxophone) and Olivia Bergmann (piano), and the Elster Trio with Wassili Wohlgemuth (viol in), Davide Carlassara (cello), and Jacobo Giovanni (piano).
Once again, the young artists give us great hope for the future. Hana Chang, a violinist born in the USA in 2002, has performed in America, Europe, and Asia in recitals and as a soloist with orchestras such as the Stuttgart Philharmonic, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Utah Symphony. She played a violin made by Nicolo Amati in 1647! The duo Olivia Bergmann/Benjamin Lucas Bächler impressed with “Fuzzy Bird Sonata” by Japanese saxophonist Takashi Yoshimatsu, composed in 1991.
Simon Haje impressed with Franz Schubert’s Fantasy in C major, the “Wanderfantasie.” His sensitive playing thrilled the audience. An interesting duo made its debut at the Rheingau Music Festival with Benjamin Britten’s Sonata for Violoncello and Piano in C major, Op. 65: Ana Bakradze, born in Tbilisi, Georgia, and cellist Carlo Lay, born in Singapore in 2002. The Elster Trio shone with Antonin Dvorák’s Trio for Piano, Violin, and Violoncello No. 4 in E minor, Op. 90, “Dumky.”
It was once again a wonderful experience to see the young talents, and there is hope that music and art will continue to connect people across all continents in the future.
The fact that this is also seen in this way by politicians, at least by Hessian state politicians, was demonstrated by the presence of the Hessian Minister of Economics and Deputy Minister-President Kaweh Mansoori. He presented the artists with the Rheingau Musik Festival Lotto prize.(jwm)