Cycle "change" 2023 - 2025
The 2023, 2024, and 2025 editions of Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy are all about embracing “Change”. These years will showcase innovative projects created by Patricia Kopatchinskaja. Carrying the theme “Music for the Planet”, the concert series will feature programmes with powerful messages about the state of nature, humanity and society. Diverse genres and styles will be intertwined to provoke thoughts on the world’s current state, offering an overall artistic experience that breaks away from the well-established formats of classical concerts.
As for every event organiser or business in general, the topics of sustainability and climate change are also of greatest importance for Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy. However, they are now being placed on the agenda with priority, giving the issues more weight than ever before. An efficient overall organisation of the Festival will make an active contribution to achieving our climate goals. In this way, the three-year “Change” cycle will also be rounded off in a holistic and sustainable manner. Guests, the public and partners as well as sponsors can thus look forward to unique events coming up in Gstaad.
Throwback 2023: Change I – “Humility”
Humility & Nature
Humility & Role Models (focus on music by J.S. Bach)
Humility & Faith
In 2023, the focus on “Humility” is intended to sharpen our awareness towards nature, but also towards issues that are not entirely within our hands. We feel that humility is a very present attitude to life in our society in these years between the ongoing pandemic, war and climate change – as part of the Festival in summer 2023, we are trying to address these topics by a variety of programmes. Since many crises have been caused by the effects of the pandemic and war, values such as humility, modesty and respect take on a new meaning. In religion as well as in the individual faith and attitude towards spirituality, humility is a state of mind in which one submits to the divine and is aware of his own imperfection. This attitude is reflected, above all, in the music of J.S. Bach. During the opening of the 2023 Festival, we introduced our “Mission Menuhin” project. This endeavor is designed to chronicle and share our gradual steps toward creating a Festival that is more environmentally friendly and sustainable.
2024: Change II – “Transformation”
Trans-cendence
Trans-Mission
Trans-Classics
Transformation. To shape a society of tomorrow, efficient changes are indispensable – the digital transformation alone brings about profound impacts. Social values are changing rapidly, and anything that needs to change must undergo processes of transformation. Clinging to the old equals stagnation. Innovation is in high demand. The continuous pursuit of the unknown has kept the cultural scene in an unceasing state of change from the very beginning. Humanity continues to evolve culture from one generation to the next, constantly shedding new light on their own surroundings. Simultaneously, it requires courage to create something new and to experiment. To maintain relevance, we must exhibit a certain level of consistency and radicalism in artistic expression.
Utilizing the forces unleashed by transformations, channelling existing energies into new expressions – this is what we’ve set as the goal for the 68th edition of Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy. Therefore, we’ve grouped all concerts into three thematic areas, creating a programme that unfolds on three unique levels: “Trans-cendence”, “Trans-Mission”, and “Trans-Classics”. With the first group of concerts, we highlight music in its metaphysical impact, in its expression between the earthly and the ethereal, between sensual perception and access to formless dream worlds. From Richard Strauss’ “Metamorphosen” resonates a transcendent music, liberated from all externalities. The transcendence of a tragic moment through love forms the core of Richard Dehmel’s “Verklärte Nacht”, that inspired Arnold Schönberg in composing his eponymous string sextet in 1899. In Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, the core concept revolves around the idea of suffering. In Gustav Holst’s “The Planets”, the focus shifts towards celestial music. The suite sketches the life journey of a person from youth to the old age, who, after leaving behind their human life, ascends to a new mystical plane. Along this journey, specific stages of personality development are portrayed thr ough individual planetary movements. These movements encapsulate the entire spectrum of human personality.
We delve into the concept of “Trans-Mission” when it comes to the evolution of values, knowledge, culture and traditions across generations and eras. What we’ve been practicing as part of our academies for many years in the spirit of our Festival founder, Yehudi Menuhin, will now also become a central part of our concert programme: Just think about Mozart, who pays tribute to his idol when dedicating his string quartets to Haydn, or about Bruckner and his art of transforming harmonies as made popular by Wagner in his Symphony No. 7. Finally, we’ll get to explore what we call the “Trans-Classics” series, which deals with the realm of performance and concert formats. This is where genres and styles converge in innovative programmes and events.
Transformative processes must be accompanied with the deliberate breakdown of obsolete barriers. This leads to the question of what change means to all of us. The 2024 Festival edition offers countless opportunities to collectively explore these questions.
Manifestations of Transformative Processes as Part of the 2024 Festival
Transcendent processes in the music of Franz Schubert (“Unfinished Symphony”, Mass No. 5 in A-flat major), Richard Strauss (“Metamorphosen” for 23 Solo Strings), Arnold Schönberg (“Verklärte Nacht”), Johannes Brahms (Clarinet Quintet) and Sergei Rachmaninov (Suite for 2 Pianos)
Transcendence in symphonic works: Gustav Holst’s “The Planets”, Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 “Titan”, Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7
Transcendence in the Act II of Richard Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde”
Processes of Trans-Mission with Haydn and Mozart, Robert and Clara Schumann, Lisa Cristiani and Sol Gabetta, Beethoven and Tristan Murail, Emilie Mayer, as well as Menuhin and his Academy
Transformative processes in programmes, concert formats and presentation styles with Nemanja Radulović and his “Double Sens”, Anastasia Kobekina and her “Venezia and Beyond” programme, Miloš Karadaglić’s “Baroque’n’Roll”, Hiromi’s jazz piano performance, Richard Galliano’s “New York Tango Trio”, Andrej Hermlin’s “Best of Swing”, Lea Desandre’s “The Times They Are A-Changin”, or with the Vision String Quartet
Music for the Planet – Cycle II
Projects 2024: Climate Change, Upheavals and Transformation
1) «Venezia and Beyond»
Tu 23 July 2024, 7.30 pm, Saanen Church – Orchestral Concert Music for the Planet I
Anastasia Kobekina, Cello, Kammerorchester Basel, Julia Schröder, Violin & Direction
Venice, a city of yearning and dreams, a place with a rich musical history, yet it also signifies mortality as a location haunted by uncontrollable forces. In her homage to Venice, Anastasia Kobekina contemplates past and contemporary notes, exploring dreamlike images and the profound theme of the transience of this lagoon city, whose future is challenged by rising sea levels.
2) «Time and Eternity»
Sa 10. August 2024, 19.30 Uhr, Kirche Saanen – Orchesterkonzert Music for the Planet II
Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Violin & Direction, Camerata Bern, Peter Fleischlin, Percussion, Beata Würsten, Sarah Würsten, Monika Würsten, Song, Wieslaw Pipczynski, Accordion, Henri Mugier, Kantor, Jewish Community of Bern, Vikar Wojciech Maruszewski, Priest, Roman Catholic Parishes of the Canton of Bern, Ioan Ciurin, Priest, Russian Orthodox Church Bern
In Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s “Time and Eternity”, the music revolves around pivotal moments of transformation, the aftermath of catastrophic wartime events, but also around hope. In 1939, Karl Amadeus Hartmann composed his Concerto funebre fueled by outrage and despair in response to the horrors of the Nazi regime, a threat that loomed over European civilization. The Concerto funebre can be understood as a passionate expression, a reflection on the suffering inflicted upon humanity, all living beings, the very essence of creation, and, by extension, the Creator (God?) himself. In his Polyptyque (a violin concerto composed in 1973 for Yehudi Menuhin), Frank Martin translated the Passion of Christ into music, drawing inspiration from images by Duccio di Buoninsegna (ca. 1255 – 1319) found on the reverse side of the renowned Maestà altarpiece in Siena. Frank Martin was deeply inspired by the Passion narrative, which conveys the idea that God empathises with the misery of temporal existence. According to Christian beliefs, His suffering leads to redemption in the Eternal – a beacon of hope in times of peril, including the challenges posed by climate change.
2025: Change III – “Migration”
Migration & music: the journey of musicians or music from exile, music by migrants, export of music through migration, origins, and exile.
March 2024