Sommerliche Musiktage Hitzacker

Sommerliche Musiktage Hitzacker
Genremostly chamber music
Beginsend of July
Endsbeginning of August (9 days)
Frequencyannual
Location(s)Hitzacker
Inaugurated1946; 79 years ago (1946)
People
Websitewww.musiktage-hitzacker.de

Sommerliche Musiktage Hitzacker ("summerly music days Hitzacker") is the name of a traditional international festival of classical chamber music in Hitzacker, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1946, it is held annually for nine days beginning with the last weekend in July.

History

The first festival was held in the summer of 1946, it is therefore regarded as the first chamber music festival in Germany.[1] The first artistic director was the cellist Hans Döscher who directed the festival until his death in 1971. He focused the festival on chamber music, both Early music and contemporary.[2] From 2012 to 2015, the violinist Carolin Widmann directed the festival. From 2016, Oliver Wille has been the director, a founding member of the Kuss Quartet and a professor of chamber music for strings at the Musikhochschule Hannover.[3]

Program

The program has included concerts of chamber music from medieval to regular premieres, new concert projects, literature, dance and film. Each year used to have a motto, such as "Europe" in 2009 and "Ins Labor" in 2010, presenting experiments in music, and music related to inventors.[1] In 2016, the new director programmed without a motto, but focused on the festival as a meeting point and had the audience decide one concert program.[3]

Premieres have included the Flute Concerto by Isang Yun on 30 July 1977, played by Karlheinz Zöller and conducted by Günther Weißenborn.[4] Jörg Widmann's second string quartet, Choralquartett, was commissioned by the festival and premiered by the Keller Quartet on 29 July 2003.[5]

Focus

Artists

International artists who have appeared at the festival include "composers in residence" such as Krzysztof Penderecki in 2001, before Aribert Reimann, Olivier Messiaen, György Ligeti and Witold Lutosławski,[8] also Heinz Holliger, Bernhard Lang, Helmut Lachenmann and Wolfgang Rihm. Dieter Ammann was composer in residence in 2014.[9]

Instrumentalists have included Anatol Ugorski,[10] Boris Pergamenschikow, Dinorah Varsi,[8] Rosamunde Quartet,[10] Hilliard Ensemble,[11] Stephen Kovacevich,[12] Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Sol Gabetta,[13] and Ensemble Modern.[14] The conductor and pianist Marino Formenti [de] received the Belmont Prize at the festival in 2009.[15]

References

  1. ^ a b "Sommerliche Musiktage Hitzacker" (in German). Deutschlandfunk. 15 August 2010. Archived from the original on 2 August 2023. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  2. ^ "History". musiktage-hitzacker.de. 2017. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  3. ^ a b "Sommerliche Musiktage Hitzacker 2016 / Von Haydn bis Django Reinhardt" (in German). Deutschlandfunk. 16 January 2017. Archived from the original on 1 March 2017. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  4. ^ "Flute Concerto" (PDF). Isang Yun. Boosey & Hawkes. 2017. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  5. ^ "Choralquartett / (2. Streichquartett) (2003, rev. 2006)". Jörg Widmann (in German). Schott Music. 2017. Archived from the original on 23 May 2017. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  6. ^ a b c "Intendant Wille: "Mozart zu spielen ist wie auf rohen Eiern zu laufen"". NDR.de (in German). 15 May 2023. Archived from the original on 25 July 2023. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
  7. ^ "Musik - Hitzacker (Elbe) Neun Tage Mozart bei Sommerlichen Musiktagen Hitzacker". Süddeutsche.de (in German). dpa. 28 July 2023. Archived from the original on 29 July 2023. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  8. ^ a b Weber, Bruno (2001). "Tonerlebnis / Musiktage Hitzacker 2001". neue musikzeitung (in German). Archived from the original on 16 November 2014. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  9. ^ Vries, Jutta de (2014). "69. Sommerliche Musiktage Hitzacker – durchgetanzt!". neue musikzeitung (in German). Archived from the original on 15 August 2014. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  10. ^ a b "Kein fauler Zauber: Musik und Literatur / Zu den 57. Sommerlichen Musiktagen Hitzacker". neue musikzeitung (in German). 2002. Archived from the original on 16 November 2014. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  11. ^ Brem, Peter (2016). Ein Leben lang erste Geige: Meine Zeit bei den Berliner Philharmonikern (in German). Rowohlt. Archived from the original on 15 August 2014. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  12. ^ "Sommerliche Musiktage Hitzacker". Deutschlandfunk Kultur (in German). 15 August 2010. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  13. ^ "Nachklapp Hitzacker / Eine Festivalrückschau" (in German). Deutschlandfunk. 7 August 2006. Archived from the original on 2 August 2023. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  14. ^ "Sommerliche Musiktage Hitzacker / Gipfeltreffen zwischen Romantik und Gegenwart" (in German). Deutschlandfunk. 3 August 2007. Archived from the original on 2 August 2023. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  15. ^ "Pianist Formenti erhält Belmont-Preis" (in German). Augsburger Allgemeine. 26 July 2009. Archived from the original on 2 December 2021. Retrieved 19 June 2017.

Further reading

  • Lesle, Lutz: Sommerliche Musiktage Hitzacker. Edition Thomas Herms, Holm 1995. ISBN 3-9804038-3-1