The celebration of sound was triumphant
Especially after last years festival, which feasted the 150th birthday of Mahler, we put in much effort to fill the WoertherSee Classics 2011, which solemnized the 100th obit of the composer, with new content.
Now I have to confess, after the concerts and everything around them, that this year certainly counts as one of the most exhilarating, both in a artistic aswell as in a humane way.
I was also very pleased with the appreciation we received this year from our audience and from the media. We menaged to convince many patrons of our so called VIP offers aswell.
The Ö1 Clubmobil, which was there despite great competition in all of Austria, and local news reported and the ORF recorded the concerts again.
The early, due to Mahlers obit on the 18th of May, start of the festival lead to an enhanced tourism activity and the Arcotel Moser Verdino was able to accommodate music lovers from Italy already in May, swell as faithful festival fans from south Germany and especially this year from Ljubljana and Slovenia.
Furthermore I would like to to highlight that Manfred Bockelmann made two huge charcoal drawings of Gustav Mahler particularly for the festival, and Uniqa with their Art Circle and Kelag with their beautiful brochure for the Joker Club directed the attention of art enthusiast to the festival.
Our presentations were anticipated with great joy by our audience, e.g. Cornelia Mathis-Haider and her cultural guide of Carinthia, the exhibition "Timeless" by Astrid Langer and the presentation of the festival CD "Erwachen deer Liebe".
A few thoughts about the concerts…
The motto "sound" was chosen perfectly regarding our intentions. The opening concert held a very special effect: the choirs in Mahlers third symphony were standing on the balcony which gave a surround effect and combined with the orchestra and the soloist it became a "space symphony", which Mahler himself would probably have liked.
This performance - first time Mahlers 3rd in Carinthia - developed in a colossal way and must be credited to three main components: the young conductor David Danzmayr, who made a played a terrific part in combining the Donauphilharmony and the Philharmony of Györ and the choirs; Gabriele Sima sang most beautifully and Universal Edition placed the the scores at our disposal in April which made the rehearsal times very comfortable.
With Martyn van den Hoek we experienced a fascinating piano evening, which I daresay was rarely heard in Austria. His transmissions of the Mahler songs go hand in hand with the admired Lizt transcriptions and his virtuosity didn´t seem to have limits.
I also want to acknowledge the to composers who blessed the festival with their pieces this year and came to Klagenfurt.
Wolfram Wagner strikes in his violin fantasy my personal artistic ideal: flexible sound composition and of course virtuosity, which doesn´t mean to be lounder or faster than others, but much rather to make a feature of every note.
The orchestration of the Zemlinskys fifth serenade by Franz Hummel was gentle and empathetic - I am sure this piece will find its place in the concert repertoire.
I think it is necessary to point out the chamber music and yet very fulfilling sound of the Vienniese Concert Association lead with great dedication by Alexei Korienko.
I was very glad and also a little bit surprised about the intake of our first childrens concert. The children ( accompanied by big children ) experienced how brilliant and entertaining classical music can be, when you´re allowed to sit wherever you want in the concert hall, to dance or to drink.
Our plans for 2012
Our 10 year anniversary this year set new quality standards in international appreciation and tourism activity. We are very content and thank our enthusiastic audience and all of the private patrons aswell as those of the city and the state and we hereby proudly announce four exciting orchestra concerts for the year 2012 between 12th an 16th of June.
