Grafenegg Festival opens anniversary season with Beethoven and Orff

The Grafenegg Festival in Lower Austria opened its 20th anniversary season on Friday with Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, ORF reported. Festival director Rudolf Buchbinder played the piano in Beethoven’s work, while Carmina Burana formed the evening’s climax.

The Philharmonia Orchestra London performed under Romanian conductor Cristian Măcelaru at the Wolkenturm open air stage in the park of Grafenegg Castle, in the Krems district. The programme featured Ludwig van Beethoven’s rarely performed Fantasy for Piano, Chorus and Orchestra in C minor, Op. 80, and Orff’s Carmina Burana.

Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy opened with a dramatic piano solo by Buchbinder. The work, which anticipates Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, culminated in the hymn like choral passage “Nehmt denn hin, ihr schönen Seelen, froh die Gaben schöner Kunst!”

Orff’s cantata for soloists, chorus and orchestra brought the concert to its peak. Buchbinder said it had been his strong wish to open the anniversary year with Carmina Burana, calling it “a world class work”. Its setting of medieval texts, marked by strong rhythms and memorable melodies, is among the best known choral works of the 20th century. The famous opening chorus, “O Fortuna”, provided a striking finale.

Soprano Nikola Hillebrand, tenor Nicholas Phan and baritone Germán Olvera joined Buchbinder and the orchestra. The Vienna Singverein and the Vienna Boys’ Choir’s girls’ choir, the Vienna Chormädchen, also took part.

The concert was a special appearance for Buchbinder, who will step down as artistic director after the anniversary season. Representatives from the arts and culture, business, politics and religion attended the opening. Among them was Lower Austrian Governor Johanna Mikl Leitner, who said she hoped the festival’s success story would continue.

The festival programme runs until September 6. Martha Argerich and, at the close, Riccardo Muti with the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini will appear in Grafenegg for the first time. Other guests include the 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic, as well as soloists Piotr Beczała, Gautier Capuçon, Alexandre Kantorow, Julia Hagen and Buchbinder.

The programme also includes concert performances of Parsifal and Die tote Stadt, appearances by the Vienna Philharmonic, the Munich Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and a residency by Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth. The Ink Still Wet composer conductor workshop and the Grafenegg Academy will also return.