Grafenegg Music Festival 2021
Grafenegg Music Festival 2021
2021 marks an important anniversary: the Grafenegg Festival's 15th season.
Among the great orchestras performing are the Philharmonic Orchestras of Vienna, Munich and Prague. Soloists of the 2021 Grafenegg Festival include such stellar names as Piotr Beczała, Gautier Capuçon, Joyce DiDonato, Veronika Eberle, Renée Fleming, Sol Gabetta, Hélène Grimaud, Janine Jansen, Leonidas Kavakos, Anita Rachvelishvili and Christian Tetzlaff. Composer in Residence and workshop leader of the composer-conductor-workshop INK STILL WET is Japan's Toshio Hosokawa.
Thanks to Grafenegg's comprehensive experience in organising «safe» concerts acquired over the course of the current pandemic, we can expect that all events will go ahead as announced. In any case, the Auditorium is again on stand-by as an alternative venue in case of bad weather.
About the Grafenegg Music Festival
The Grafenegg Festival is one of Europe's most important orchestra festivals. Music, nature and architecture blend into an all-embracing work of art. The artistic director is pianist Rudolf Buchbinder. The festival's program consists of symphonic and chamber music as well as recitals. International guest orchestras are performing as well as the Austrian Tonkünstler Orchestra, which serves as orchestra in residence. The first festival started on 23 August 2007 and lasted until 9 September 2007.
The annual festival takes place on the grounds of Grafenegg Castle. Two venues have been built particularly for the festival in the park of the castle: The open-air stage Wolkenturm (capacity 2,000 in total, opened 2007) as well as the new concert hall Auditorium (capacity 1,372, opened 2008).
High-calibre classical concerts against a wonderful backdrop: Grafenegg, situated between Vienna and the Wachau valley, has risen within the space of a few years to be a festival venue of international renown, delighting people from all over the world season by season with its unique atmosphere. In the middle of the enchanting castle park stands the impressive Wolkenturm (Pillar of Clouds) open-air arena, rated one of the best outdoor stages in the world for its acoustics. Grafenegg matches this excellence with the region’s best wines, like Grüner Veltiner, and dishes. These can be tasted at various locations on the Grafenegg estate, such as the new garden pavilion «Wolke 7» (Cloud 7) and the Wine Lounge or at a picnic in the castle park.
Alongside a full summer programme of classical and modern music, beginning in mid-June with the star-studded Midsummer Night’s Gala and ending in mid-September with the Grafenegg Festival, Grafenegg is an all-year-round venue for a wide variety of events attracting more than 150 000 people annually to the romantic castle campus. For decades now, the «Grafenegger Advent» has been one of Austria’s liveliest Christmas markets; with its «Schlossklänge» cycle, the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria provides orchestral concerts throughout the year. The highlights are the festive concerts for Christmas, New Year’s Eve and Easter.
