Schwetzingen - Schlösser-Magazin

VI.
Fig. 2: Flags at the Schwetzinger
Festspiele.
Fig. 3: Festival visitors in front
of the north quarter-circle
pavilion (Photos: Schwetzinger
Festspiele).
208
VI. Schwetzingen – Historical Context
Salvatore Sciarrino and Adriana Hölszky – the
works they created for Schwetzingen have
made opera history. Successful operas like Der
Revisor, Elegy for Young Lovers, Die englische
Katze, Enrico, Die wundersame Schustersfrau,
Die tödliche Blume and Der gute Gott von
Manhattan have become inextricably linked
with Schwetzingen and its annual festival of
music.
Concerts are the festival’s second main
attraction. Chamber and orchestra concerts,
piano and song performances constitute an
important part of the programme. Big names
like Alfred Brendel, Gidon Kremer, Grigory
Sokolov, the Emerson String Quartet and the
Hagen Quartett perform on the Schwetzingen
stage next to young, little-known artists and
ensembles. Singers like Jessye Norman, Cecilia
Bartoli and Teresa Berganza performed at
Schwetzingen long before they were stars
of the international stage. On Sundays and
public holidays, matinées are reserved for
young newcomers. Then there is the official
“contact week” for young musicians, the
“Woche der Begegnung Junger Musiker”. For
17 years now young artists from Germany
and abroad have been meeting at the festival,
rehearsing for one week under the guidance
of experienced lecturers, and performing at an
all-night event, the “Long Night at the Rococo
Theatre”. The inclusion of music that straddles
the genres of classical music, jazz and world
music, in-depth introductions to the work of
individual composers, and themed selections
characterize the Schwetzingen programme.
Thanks to the international exchange of
programmes among radio channels the
festival attendees are not alone in enjoying the
Schwetzingen operas and concerts. Up to 700
transmissions a year, all over the world, have
made the Schwetzinger Festspiele the biggest
Classical music event on radio. By now the
event’s appeal has been established for more
than 50 years, and there is more to it than
a musical programme of the highest order.
Schwetzingen Palace, with its historic concert
halls, its electoral landscape garden and the
incomparable atmosphere of its Rococo
theatre, is as instrumental as the music itself
in making the Schwetzinger Festspiele into
the outstanding events they are.
(Peter Stieber)