The Rheingau Music Festival 2022 ended with Anton Bruckner´s Symphony Nr. 8

The Bamberg Symphony Orchestra has been inspiring audiences around the world with its characteristically dark, round and radiant sound since 1946. With well over 7,300 concerts in more than 500 cities and 63 countries, they have become the cultural ambassador for all of Germany as the Bavarian State Philharmonic./Photo: Ansgar Klostermann

With Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 in C minor, the 2nd version, played by the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach, the Rheingau Music Festival 2022 came to an end on September 3 in the Basilica of the Eberbach Monastery in the Rheingau. Continue reading “The Rheingau Music Festival 2022 ended with Anton Bruckner´s Symphony Nr. 8”

The Kingfisher Feather – A Visit to the Cape Verde Islands

Africa´s islands in the Atlantic/Foto: Doris Minke

 

By Suse Rabel-Harbering

The discovery of the Cape Verde Islands in 1462 is attributed to Henry the Navigator, who was sailing on behalf of the Portuguese crown. Before the discovery, the islands were deserted. Thanks to its favorable location, the archipelago became a center of international trade relations, being situated in the middle of the three continents of Africa, Asia and America. Apart from sugar cane, rum and salt, the main commodities traded were slaves. Since the middle of the 16th century, Portugal had reserved the exclusive right to market slaves on the West African coast.

Pillory, Cidade Velha, Santiago/Photo: Doris Minke

In its heyday, it was called Ribeira Grande and was the capital of the Cape Verde Islands. Already in 1533 it received the city rights. After that, it Continue reading “The Kingfisher Feather – A Visit to the Cape Verde Islands”

“Cohesion” – The guiding principle of Rheingau Music Festival 2022

Cuvéehof Schloss Johannisberg/Foto RMF

The 35th festival summer from 25.6. to 3.9.2022 will take place under the guiding principle “Cohesion”. It is intended to bring the music back to the audience in full radiance and in the usual atmospheric manner.

Violinist Julia Fischer and pianist Jan Lisiecki will be featured as focus artists in several concerts of the Rheingau Music Festival at once. Whether in large orchestra concerts, or for the first time together on stage as a duo – Julia Fischer and Jan Lisiecki will bring their deep musical devotion and virtuoso joy of playing to the Rheingau. Continue reading ““Cohesion” – The guiding principle of Rheingau Music Festival 2022″

Bomsori Kim and Camerata Salzburg in the Eberbach Cloisters

Bomsori Kim, violin, accompanied by the Camerata Salzburg plays Mozart (Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 3 in G major KV 216 Symphony No. 40 in G minor KV 550) in the cloister of Eberbach Monastery/Photo: Ansgar Klostermann

 

Bomsori Kim is firmly convinced that Mozart himself was an outstanding violin virtuoso. The concerts would tell a lot about the master violinist Mozart, says the Korean, who, like the Viennese classicist himself, began playing the violin in early childhood. She is now one of the most sought-after young stars on the international concert podiums.

In 2019, she celebrated her debut in the Eberbach Cloister and was Continue reading “Bomsori Kim and Camerata Salzburg in the Eberbach Cloisters”

Music for beer parlors in the Basilica of the Eberbach Monastery

The Alehouse Session – the basilica of the Eberbach Monastery an unusual location for the show/Photo: Ansgar Klostermann

The performance of “The Alehouse Session” at Eberbach Monastery should have taken place in the cloister of the monastery, weather permitting. But rain had prevented that and so it took place in the basilica. Somewhat unusual for the place,  that percussion and drum perfectionist Helge Andreas Norbakken at  first and as a start of the show took a sip from his beer bottle.

But thank goodness Continue reading “Music for beer parlors in the Basilica of the Eberbach Monastery”

The Rheingau Music Festival 2021 has started

2nd opening concert of the Rheingau Music Festival 2021 on June 27, 2021/Photo: Ansgar Klostermann

 

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s concert overture “The Hebrides”, his Reformation Symphony No. 5, and Jean Sibelius Concerto for Violin and Orchestra were on the program of the two opening concerts of the Rheingau Music Festival 2021. At the first sounds of the concert overture “The Hebrides”, my thoughts wander quite spontaneously to the Scottish, green-brown, romantic, melancholy island landscape of the Hebrides. It is June 27, 2021, but the place of action is the Rheingau, the medieval basilica of Eberbach Abbey near Eltville on the Rhine, which Bernard of Clairvaux founded almost 900 years ago. Continue reading “The Rheingau Music Festival 2021 has started”

Enjoy the digital Rheingau Music Festival 2020 at home

The Eberbach Monastery complex/Photo: RMF

The prelude to the digital concert series 2020 is the concert “All about Mozart” at Eberbach Monastery.  A rousing program unfolds in the Eberbach Monastery complex, showing the great genius of Viennese Classicism in all its facets. The soloists are Ana de la Vega, Bomsori Kim, Nils Mönkemeyer and Sarah Willis, the Cuban band Sarahbanda and the Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn under the direction of Benjamin Reiners.

For the second concert, the US-American organist Cameron Carpenter Continue reading “Enjoy the digital Rheingau Music Festival 2020 at home”

The Ischgl Protocol – A party location infects half of Europe

The party is over/Foto: blog.tirol

The winter sports village Ischgl in Tyrol was known for its parties. Then it became the hub of the corona virus – out of unscrupulousness and greed. A team of reporters reconstructed the case.

From: Der Spiegel  on 27.03.2020

“Home of Madness”

By Jürgen Dahlkamp, Hauke Goos, Roman Höfner, Felix Hutt, Gunther Latsch, Timo Lehmann, Walter Mayr, Max Polonyi and Jonathan Stock.

Ischgl in Tyrol is a mountain village in the Paznaun valley at an altitude of 1377 metres. It has a parish church and a chapel for the dead, about 1600 inhabitants and 11,800 guest beds, 239 kilometres of ski slopes, 1000 snow cannons, 45 lifts. There is the disco “Kuhstall” and the après ski bar “Kitzloch”. In Ischgl you can ski and party all night long at Jägermeister-Red Bull. Ischgl is a brand like Ibiza, Sylt or the Oktoberfest. Millions of tourists meet here every year. They come from Dublin, Reykjavík, Copenhagen and Helsinki, from Bavaria, Hamburg and Neuss. The tourism industry in the valley has a turnover of 250 million euros a year. Continue reading “The Ischgl Protocol – A party location infects half of Europe”

Mahler´s Fourth Symphony at the end

RMF 2019 – Final concert, Christiane Karg, soprano, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Mirga Grazinyté-Tyla/Foto: RMF / Ansgar Klostermann

 

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. Continue reading “Mahler´s Fourth Symphony at the end”

Johannes Brahms: A German Requiem

Brahms Requiem at Eberbach Monastery, Matthias Winckhler Bassbariton, Bach Choir Mainz, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, conducted by Ralf Otto, © RMF / Ansgar Klostermann

Brahms gave a very special Requiem to the music world: “A German Requiem”. On August 24, the soprano Sophie Wagner, the bass baritone Matthias Winckhler supported by the Bach Choir Mainz and accompanied by the Deutsche Radio Philharomie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern performed as part of the Rheingau Music Festival in the basilica of Eberbach Monastery with overwhelming intimacy and impressive intensity.

When Brahms presented his work to the public Continue reading “Johannes Brahms: A German Requiem”