Lower Austria opens 66th serenade concert series at historic venues

Lower Austria’s serenade concert series will feature 11 performances at historic venues from August 30 to November 1, ORF reported. The 66th edition will take place at locations ranging from St. Peter in der Au in the Amstetten district to Krems.

Under the motto “Music at the source,” the concerts will be held at places connected with the composers whose works are performed. The series opens on August 30 at St. Peter Castle in St. Peter in der Au with the Carl Zeller Serenade. The programme includes arias and duets from Zeller’s operettas “The Bird Seller,” “The Mine Overseer” and “Fornarina,” as well as songs by the composer.

Other performances are scheduled at Schubert Castle Atzenbrugg in the Tulln district, Laxenburg Castle Theatre in the Mödling district and the House of Art in Baden. At Atzenbrugg, the programme titled “Night and Dreams” features works by Schubert, Mozart, Schumann, Fauré and Berlioz. Laxenburg will host songs and duets by Mozart, Dvořák, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Mahler.

Concert dedicated to composers in exile

The “Serenade of Exile” will take place on October 25 at the former synagogue in St. Pölten. The programme includes works by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Gustav Mahler and Erich Wolfgang Korngold, as well as “Panta rhei” by composer Ursula Mamlok, who fled Germany from the Nazis in 1939 at the age of 16.

The series will close on November 1 with the Krenek Serenade at the Krenek Salon in Krems. Ernst Krenek’s “Travel Book from the Austrian Alps” will be performed in full, complemented by excerpts from his autobiographical work “In the Breath of Time.”