The market town of Grassau with its 7,000 inhabitants, located near Lake Chiemsee in the district of Traunstein and an hour and a half by car from Munich, was Wolfgang Sawallisch’s place of retreat for decades. From 1971 to 1992 he directed the musical fortunes of the Bavarian State Opera as general music director and at times as its opera director. He drew strength from his diverse tasks in the country, but there was always music in his own chamber music hall, which was attached to his villa.
Concerts have been held here regularly since his death, and his 100th birthday on August 26th is the occasion for four festival concerts: the one on the actual memorial day is already sold out, but it should also be exciting on October 14th (7:30 p.m.) when the Opera Studio the Bavarian State Opera, which owes Sawallisch a lot, will be guests with arias and ensembles from popular operas, or on November 12 (6 p.m.). Then the Grassau brass ensemble, former students of the local music school, will play a top-class program with folk and chamber music up to the “Meistersinger” overture by Richard Wagner in honor of Sawallisch in the Hefter Kultursaal in Grassau with free admission.
This opera was of central importance for the conductor, with it the annual opera festival came to an end as the last comprehensive bundling of all the forces of the house, including the choir and extra choir, before the six-week theater holidays began. This can be read in Wolfgang Sawallisch’s memoirs under the title “My life with music”.
Led the musical fortunes of the Bavarian State Opera for many years: Conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch, recorded during a performance in the Cologne Philharmonic in 2000. Sawallisch died on February 22, 2013 at the age of 89.
(Photo: Herrmann Wöstmann/dpa)
On November 19 (11 a.m.) there will be a chamber music evening with members of the Bavarian State Orchestra, again in the Villa Sawallisch, because Sawallisch was also a passionate chamber musician, who shaped many concerts in the Cuvilliés Theater with “his” musicians from the piano, but also accompanied numerous young singers at song recitals. The program includes Richard Strauss’ Violin Sonata op. 18, Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s “Little Concerto for String Quartet” and Hans Pfitzner’s String Quintet.
There are plenty of other concerts in the Villa Sawallisch in Grassau until the end of the year, including various final concerts from master classes in singing (Christiane Libor, Hanno Müller-Brachmann), song duo (Hartmut Höll), baroque music, clarinet (Shirley Brill ), trombone (Henning Wiegräbe), violin (Ingolf Turban), cello (Wen-Sinn Yang/Pavel Gililov) or horn as well as three evenings entitled “Fascination Voice”. Next to that play Goldmund Quartet Bach, Schumann and Shostakovich or that Flute Ensemble Munich a magic flute soirée. There is cabaret, jazz, “New Music for Zither and Trombone” or evenings at Christmas with Michaela May and Maria Reiter.
100 Years Wolfgang Savallisch, Grassau, further information on the programme, tickets and accommodation at www.sawallisch-stiftung.de.