Under the direction of the new chief conductor Alain Altinoglu, the HR Symphony Orchestra will open the Rheingau Music Festival on June 25th in the Basilica of Kloster Eberbach.

Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 2 in B flat major ("Lobgesang") can also be heard there on the following evening.

130 more concerts at 25 venues in the Rheingau and neighboring regions will follow before the end of the festival on September 3rd at the same venue with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christoph Eschenbach.

A total of 131,000 tickets are available.

With these figures and the total budget of eight million euros, which has been constant for a long time, of which about half each comes from sponsorship and ticket sales, the festival in its 35th edition is almost back to the level it was before the pandemic.

Guido Holze

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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After the complete failure in 2020, it had already been proven last year "that we can hold the festival even under difficult conditions," said director and founder Michael Herrmann at the program presentation in Oestrich-Winkel.

The festival, which has remained financially unaffected thanks to government aid programs, is currently planning to have the concerts full.

There is no "Plan B".

The concert cube at Schloss Johannisberg, the largest mobile concert hall in Europe, which was specially built for performances under Corona conditions, will again be used for chamber concerts.

Another location is planned for the coming years, especially since the castle festival in Johannisberg would have to be canceled again in 2022, Herrmann explained.

The Wiesbaden Kurhaus remains the third main venue of the festival alongside Johannisberg and Eberbach.

The focus artist is the Polish-Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki, who as principal soloist performs all five of Beethoven's piano concertos with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe on two evenings and later Chopin's two piano concertos with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra.

Another focus artist is the violinist Julia Fischer, who performs in a duo with Lisiecki.

She can also be heard as a soloist in concerts with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and the Potsdam Chamber Academy.

The "Focus Jazz" artist is the drummer Wolfgang Haffner.

Five of the best-known German boys' choirs followed the invitation of the festival: the Thomanerchor Leipzig, the Dresdner Kreuzchor, the Windsbacher Knabenchor and the Regensburger Domspatzen in July and only in Advent the Tölz Boys' Choir.

On the 175th year of his death, Mendelssohn will be particularly honored with a weekend on which his two great oratorios “Paulus” and “Elias” will be performed (July 22nd to 24th).

Advance ticket sales begin today, February 17th.

25,000 tickets have already been purchased by the 4,000 members of the festival promotion association using their right of first refusal.