Sommerliche Musiktage Hitzacker
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Sommerliche Musiktage Hitzacker ("summerly music days Hitzacker") is the name of a traditional international festival of classical chamber music in Hitzacker, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1946, it is held annually for nine days beginning with the last weekend in July.
| Sommerliche Musiktage Hitzacker | |
|---|---|
| Genre | mostly chamber music |
| Begins | end of July |
| Ends | beginning of August (9 days) |
| Frequency | annual |
| Location | Hitzacker |
| Inaugurated | 1946 |
| People |
|
| Website | www |
History
The first festival was held in the summer of 1946, it is therefore regarded as the first chamber music festival in Germany.[1] The first artistic director was the cellist Hans Döscher who directed the festival until his death in 1971. He focused the festival on chamber music, both Early music and contemporary.[2] From 2012 to 2015, the violinist Carolin Widmann directed the festival. From 2016, Oliver Wille has been the director, a founding member of the Kuss Quartet and a professor of chamber music for strings at the Musikhochschule Hannover.[3]
Program
The program has included concerts of chamber music from medieval to regular premieres, new concert projects, literature, dance and film. Each year used to have a motto, such as "Europe" in 2009 and "Ins Labor" in 2010, presenting experiments in music, and music related to inventors.[1] In 2016, the new director programmed without a motto, but focused on the festival as a meeting point and had the audience decide one concert program.[3]
Premieres have included the Flute Concerto by Isang Yun on 30 July 1977, played by Karlheinz Zöller and conducted by Günther Weißenborn.[4] Jörg Widmann's second string quartet, Choralquartett, was commissioned by the festival and premiered by the Keller Quartet on 29 July 2003.[5]
Focus
Artists
International artists who have appeared at the festival include "composers in residence" such as Krzysztof Penderecki in 2001, before Aribert Reimann, Olivier Messiaen, György Ligeti and Witold Lutosławski,[8] also Heinz Holliger, Bernhard Lang, Helmut Lachenmann and Wolfgang Rihm. Dieter Ammann was composer in residence in 2014.[9]
Instrumentalists have included Anatol Ugorski,[10] Boris Pergamenschikow, Dinorah Varsi,[8] Rosamunde Quartet,[10] Hilliard Ensemble,[11] Stephen Kovacevich,[12] Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Sol Gabetta,[13] and Ensemble Modern.[14] The conductor and pianist Marino Formenti received the Belmont Prize at the festival in 2009.[15]