About the Salzburg Festival Whitsun

To hold the festival in Salzburg not only in the summer was offered by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, who together with max Reinhardt invented and first organized the Salzburg festival. According to his plan, the festival should be held annually not only in the summer, but also at Christmas time, Easter and during the Holy Trinity.

Since 1973, Herbert von Karajan has been organizing a short series of concerts during the Holy Trinity for season ticket holders for the Easter festival. They were called "Pfingstkonzerte" – "Concerts in the Holy Trinity." The first "Concerts" were dedicated to three symphonies by Anton Bruckner, which were performed for three evenings by the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra under the baton of Herbert von Karajan. From that time until 1982, the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra traditionally performed three orchestral concerts on Saturday, Sunday and Monday of the Holy Trinity.

After 1983 the orchestra took over and the other conductors (Georg Solti, Seiji Ozawa and Andre Previn). Since 1983, international orchestras – the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony orchestra and others-have taken part in the festival. Since 1998, the festival has been held under its current name-the Salzburg festival during the Holy Trinity, and Opera productions have also been added to the repertoire. Since the 1990s, the Salzburg Easter festival has given preference to the Baroque repertoire-for example, at the 2005 festival. Handel's Opera ACIS and Galatea and his oratory Solomon were performed. According to the established tradition at the festival, musicians play historical instruments.

From 2007 to 2013, the artistic Director of the Salzburg festival during the Holy Trinity was Riccardo Muti, who, wishing to show during the festival the link between Neapolitan and Austrian culture, held it under the motto "Salzburg to match Naples". During these five years, several rare operas of the Neapolitan Opera school were staged at the festival. Since 2014, the artistic Director of the Salzburg festival during the Holy Trinity is Cecilia Bartoli, who participates each year in an Opera production, which is first shown at the Salzburg festival during the Holy Trinity, and then repeated at the Salzburg summer festival. Thus, in 2012, she performed the role of Cleopatra in Handel's Opera Julius Caesar in Egypt, then played the main roles in Vincenzo Bellini's Norma (in 2013), Gioacchino Rossini's Cinderella (in 2014), and Gluck's Iphigenia in Taurida (in 2015).