The Dresden Music Festival opens its season of »MAGIC« with a concert by its own Dresden Festival Orchestra, which celebrates its ten-year anniversary in 2022. The 45th Festival launches with a performance by the ensemble playing historical instruments and inviting listeners on a vivacious, resounding musical voyage into the time of the First Viennese School. With Mozart’s overture to »Die Zauberflöte« and his last Symphony, the famous »Jupiter« Symphony, the program includes two highly popular works by this beloved composer. The central spotlight of the evening shines on Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5, another brilliant representative of the era. The solo part will be played by the young pianist Jan Lisiecki, a long-standing Festival favourite who will give his debut on the pianoforte. Together with the conductor Jean-Christophe Spinosi, an eminent specialist in historically informed performance practice, the performers will offer a magical evening of music!

Jan Lisiecki – Pianoforte
Dresden Festival Orchestra
Jean-Christophe Spinosi – Conductor

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Overture to the Opera »Die Zauberflöte« (»The Magic Flute«) K. 620
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 5 E flat major Op. 73
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 41 C major K. 551 »Jupiter«

The Dresden Festival Orchestra is led by an American conductor celebrated for his versatility and innovative programs: David Robertson. This artistic encounter promises novel impulses, especially when the repertoire at hand consists of two ground-breaking compositions by Beethoven. The Choral Fantasy Op. 80 was written for one of Beethoven’s large-scale »academy« performances, with the piano part performed by the conductor in free improvisation. In this concert, Martin Helmchen, one of the top pianists of the younger generation, will take on this part on a historical grand piano. Presented on original instruments, the legendary Ninth Symphony allows this festival edition to end on a high note of jubilation: with the »Ode to Joy«, performed by a first-rate collective of singers.

Aleksandra Kurzak – Soprano
Tanja Ariane Baumgartner – Alto
Christian Elsner – Tenor
René Pape – Bass
Martin Helmchen – Piano
Dresdner Kammerchor (Choirmaster: Tobias Mäthger)
Dresden Festival Orchestra
David Robertson – Conductor

• Ludwig van Beethoven: Fantasy for Piano, Chorus and Orchestra in C-minor Op. 80
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D-minor Op. 125

6:30 PM Pre-Concert Talk (Kulturpalast, event space of the Central Library, 1st Floor)

KINDLY SUPPORTED BY THE ASSOCIATION OF »FRIENDS OF THE DRESDEN MUSIC FESTIVAL E. V.«