Music: Berlin Philharmonic back to Salzburg

music
Berlin Philharmonic back to Salzburg

Chief conductor Kirill Petrenko (m) with the Berlin Philharmonic in the Waldbühne in Berlin. photo

© Fabian Sommer/dpa

Herbert von Karajan once founded the Easter Festival in Salzburg with the Berlin Philharmonic. After a few years in Baden-Baden, the orchestra is now returning to Austria.

The Berlin Philharmonic is moving back from Baden-Baden to Salzburg for the Easter Festival. From 2026 onwards, the orchestra will play again at the festival that the then chief conductor Herbert von Karajan founded with the Philharmoniker in 1967. The Baden-Baden Easter Festival will then be artistically realigned. This was announced by the Easter Festivals in Salzburg and Baden-Baden and the Philharmonic Orchestra in Berlin on Monday.

“During an orchestral meeting, the orchestra decided to move back to Salzburg at Easter from 2026 and to redesign the content of the festival there at the old place of work together with the team there,” said the orchestra board members Eva-Maria Tomasi and Stefan Dohr.

The Salzburg Festival will have a permanent resident orchestra again from 2026, said the artistic director of the Easter Festival, Nikolaus Bachler. He is very pleased that it was possible to bind the founding orchestra back to this festival. “The Berlin Philharmonic and Salzburg have more than 40 years of common history, which will blossom again from 2026 with chief conductor Kirill Petrenko.”

The Philharmonic had migrated to the Baden-Baden Easter Festival in 2013. Christian Thielemann then performed at the Salzburg Festival with the Staatskapelle Dresden until 2022. Until the return of the Philharmonic, Bachler wants to “welcome a different top orchestra to the Easter Festival every year”.

Baden-Baden’s Festspielhaus director Benedikt Stampa said: “Artists have to change, but they should also know where they are always welcome.” Baden-Baden will remain such a place for the Philharmonic. The orchestra gave important impulses “which we would like to develop further with other artistic partners at Easter”.

The Philharmonic should also be able to be experienced in Baden-Baden after 2025. Annual concert residencies in the Festspielhaus are planned. “We will continue to maintain the connection to Baden-Baden and to our loyal festival audience after 2025 through joint concert projects,” said Andrea Zietzschmann, director of the Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation.

dpa

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