International guest orchestras performing music by Lutosławski, Bartók, Janáček and Benjamin Britten

The Musikfest Berlin 2013 programme has been issued and ticket sales have begun

The ninth edition of the Musikfest Berlin 2013, organised by the Berliner Festspiele in co-operation with the Berlin Philharmonic Foundation, turns its attention to music from Central Europe with orchestral works and chamber music by Béla Bartók, Leoš Janáček and Witold Lutosławski. Lutosławski and the renowned British composer Benjamin Britten share centennial celebrations this year. Britten’s music is presented by the Musikfest Berlin in conjunction with Dmitri Shostakovich’s late symphonies.

From 30 August to 18 September 2013, the Musikfest Berlin 2013 festival for international orchestras will be opening the Berlin concert season. Over 20 days, 24 events with 64 works by 25 composers can be experienced. A total of 20 orchestras, choirs and instrumental ensembles, and 25 solists from the USA, the whole of Europe and Berlin will be performing. The concerts will take place in the Berlin Philharmonie, its Kammermusiksaal and the Konzerthaus Berlin.

Raising th curtain on the Musikfest Berlin 2013, Anne-Sophie Mutter will play “Chain II” by Witold Lutosławski with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Manfred Honeck. Further featured guest orchestras are the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam with Daniele Gatti, the Philharmonia Orchestra London with Esa-Pekka Salonen, the Symphonieorchester des Bayrischen Rundfunks with Mariss Jansons, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra with Teodor Currentzis, and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe with pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard as soloist. Guest choirs are the Estonian National Men’s Choir and the Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno.

Also performing for the Musikfest Berlin 2013 are Berlin’s major orchestras: the Berlin Philharmonic led by chief conductor Sir Simon Rattle as well as a second programme under conductor Alan Gilbert, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (DSO) under Tugan Sokhiev, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin under Marek Janowski, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin under Ilan Volkov and the Staatskapelle Berlin under Daniel Barenboim. For the first time, the Orchester der Deutschen Oper with chief conductor Donald Runnicles is taking part in the Musikfest Berlin.

Soloists include Angela Denoke, Evelin Novak, Christian Gerhaher, Matthias Goerne, Klaus Florian Vogt, Isabelle Faust, Thomas Zehetmair, Martha Agerich, Benjamin Grosvenor, Yefim Bronfman and Maxim Rysanov.

On the evening before the opening concert, a string quartet cycle begins featuring the Emerson String Quartet among others, during which all six Bartók quartets will be performed. The Musikfest Berlin 2013 will close to chamber music: Carolin Widmann will give a solo recital and András Schiff and Hanno Müller-Brachmann will arrange a benefit concert of which the proceeds will go to Human Rights Watch.

With our point of departure in the Berliner Festwochen, the Berliner Festspiele have organized a multiplicity of highly specialized festivals, exhibition projects, and individual events. Our activities are devoted to the presentation of exceptional contemporary artistic positions in the fields of music, the performing arts, the visual arts, and literature – in this sense, every season generates fresh Polaroids, since our festivals and exhibitions are snapshots which reveal underlying attitudes in two ways: through the language of the presented work, and through the perspective of the program designer.

Press contact: Patricia Hofmann and Kathrin Rusch
Presse / Press Office

Berliner Festspiele
Schaperstraße 24
10719 Berlin
T +49 30 254 89-223
F +49 30 254 89-155
patricia.hofmann@berlinerfestspiele.de
www.berlinerfestspiele.de

This release was published on openPR.