Updated 11.07.2022
As a special prelude to this year's Klassik in den Alpen concert with Elīna Garanča, culture enthusiasts in the Gamsstadt awaited musical samples of young singers in the Stadtpark for the first time as part of the new event format Kitzbühel Klassik on 06, 07 and 08 July 2022.
For many years, Kammersängerin Elīna Garanča and Karel Mark Chichon have performed together with young, up-and-coming opera talents at their open-air concerts - such as at Klassik in den Alpen last Saturday, 09 July 2022. With the young talent initiative "ZukunftsStimmen" (Voices of the Future), the two launched a sustainable campaign to promote and accompany young artists.
Outstanding classical talents of the Next Generation
Kitzbühel Klassik is another attractive classical music focal point of a special kind for music lovers in Austria. This new series of events kicked off on Wednesday, 6 July with a free concert by the Kitzbühel Symphonic Wind Orchestra under conductor Daniel Neuschmid in the newly designed courtyard of the district administration building, which was attended by numerous enthusiastic listeners. The main concert took place afterwards in the K3 KitzKongress.
While the first-place winner of the ZukunftsStimmen, Marie-Sophie Janke, performed at Klassik in den Alpen on Saturday, the second- to fifth-place winners performed at the Kitzbühel Klassik concerts on Thursday and Friday with free admission: the sopranos Corina Koller and Nicole Lubinger, the mezzo-soprano Tanja Elisa Glinsner and the tenor Philipp Schöllhorn, who, as last year's winner, stood in for the Tyrolean David Kerber who had fallen ill. Clemens Anton Klug led through the top-class programme on both days. The young artists were accompanied by the exceptional pianist Katharina Königsfeld: "It was an honour for me to accompany Kitzbühel Klassik 2022 as pianist."
Due to the weather, the Thursday concert with the ZukunftsStimmen Tanja Elisa Glinsner and Nicole Lubinger as well as the Mersenne String Quartet, which was founded at the Mozarteum in Salzburg in 2021 and consists of four international musicians, took place at the Landesmusikschule Kitzbühel. The pieces were partly taken from the repertoire of the well-known Netflix series Bridgerton. The mayor of Kitzbühel, Dr. Klaus Winkler, together with the deputy managing director of Kitzbühel Tourism, Mag. Stefan Pühringer, MA, opened the summer concert on Friday in bright sunshine in the newly designed Stadtpark. Alongside Elīna Garanča, the sponsors present and the press, around three hundred enthusiastic visitors were extremely impressed by the musical performances of all four ZukunftsStimmen.
The deputy managing director of Kitzbühel Tourism, Stefan Pühringer, MA, was pleased with the successful first implementation of the new event format: "With the additional open-air concerts, Klassik in den Alpen could be extended to four days for the first time. Kitzbühel Tourism has thus set a first milestone. The concept of 'bringing high culture to magical places in Kitzbühel' has thus succeeded." A continuation in 2023 is already being planned.
"Kitzbühel Klassik is not only a form of "lived" promotion of young talent and a stage for presenting oneself to the visitors of Klassik in den Alpen, but also an opportunity for our audience to get in the mood for Elīna Garanča's concert," says Hans Holzer, organiser of the Klassik Open Airs and managing director of AMI Promarketing.
Pure magic" - Elīna Garanča at "Klassik in den Alpen"
An impressive mountain panorama as a backdrop for highlights of the opera repertoire, Zarzuella excerpts and internationally known songs and duets: this is what around 2,000 visitors experienced this year with mezzo-soprano world star Elīna Garanča at the 9th edition of Klassik in den Alpen, the crowning finale of the first Kitzbühel Klassik theme week.
Musical director Karel Mark Chichon had set the programme, which included compositions by Giuseppe Verdi, Gaetano Donizetti, Vincenzo Bellini, Leonard Bernstein and others, under the motto "Longing". Elīna Garanča was supported this year by her "Friends", the Spanish soprano Marina Monzó, the American tenor Jonathan Tetelmann and the winner of the young talent initiative "ZukunftsStimmen", the 23-year-old soprano Marie-Sophie Janke.
All information on Kitzbühel Klassik can be found at klassik.kitzbuehel.com