From September 7th to 15th, 2024, the Merseburg Organ Days will embark on a journey through 300 years of Austrian music history under the motto "Musikland Österreich – from the Viennese Classicism to the Viennese School of Modernism".
The focus will be on the anniversaries of composers Anton Bruckner (200th birthday) and contrasting musical personalities like Arnold Schoenberg and Franz Schmidt, whose birthdays will mark 150 years in 2024.
"Art does not come from ability, but from necessity" (Arnold Schoenberg)
Under this motto, the evening concert in the cathedral will celebrate Arnold Schoenberg's 150th birthday on the exact date of September 13, 2024. Experience the music of the great Viennese classical composers Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven in organ evenings, chamber music, choir and orchestra concerts. Performances of Anton Bruckner's masses in E minor and F minor, and Ludwig van Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, are certainly among the highlights of the festival.
"For little and big opera fans," there will be "The Abduction from the Seraglio" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as "Opéra en miniature" for a Baroque ensemble, singers, a speaker, and puppet theater in the Chapter Courtyard of the Cathedral.
The festival's dramaturgy ranges from a classical concert with the Camerata Salzburg to "The Beautiful Blue Danube" with the Salonorchester Cappuccino under the direction of Albrecht Winter.
During lunchtime concerts, evening concerts, late-night events, and festive church services, the four-manual organ built by Friedrich Ladegast between 1853-1855 in the Merseburg Cathedral will be played by Matthias Maierhofer, the Kauffmann brothers Markus and Pascal, Lukas Pohle, Gunter Rost from Graz, Ørjan Horn Johansen from Copenhagen, Heribert Metzger from Salzburg, Martin Lücker from Frankfurt am Main, Klaus Sonnleitner, the cathedral organist at St. Florian (near Linz), the workplace of Anton Bruckner, and the pianist and organist Michael Schöch, who works in Innsbruck.
Enjoy internationally renowned soloists and ensembles and nine days full of wonderful music.
Publisher:
United Cathedral Foundations of Merseburg and Naumburg and of the Collegiate Abbey of Zeitz
Artistic Direction: Gewandhaus Organist Michael Schönheit
The detailed program can be found at
http://www.merseburger-orgeltage.deTicket sales start on March 1, 2024 via Reservix
Doors open: 6:30 PM