Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy 2021: 7 weeks of music inspired by London

Yesterday’s final event of the 65^th edition of Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy has been a memorable reflection of this summer: so British! In the Gstaad Festival Tent, Kevin Griffiths and the City Light Symphony Orchestra took the audience into the unique world of English cinema, with the exceptional participation of Bomsori Kim, who became “Menuhin’s Heritage Artist” this year. During the seven weeks of the Festival, almost 20'000 visitors flocked to the Gstaad Festival Tent and the picturesque churches of the region to attend more than 50 concerts (some of which took place twice an evening) and three master classes, not to mention the ever-increasing range of events for children and families, as well as for amateur musicians. The organisers are particularly grateful to the institutions, sponsors and private patrons who have once again made it possible for all these concerts and courses to take place through their generous support. In this challenging year, our special thanks goes to the audience, which has expressed its confidence in our events through the numerous attendance.

Among the highlights of the 2021 edition, placed under the sign of London, were first of all three concerts of Daniel Hope’s residency with Gstaad Menuhin Festival, as well as countless evenings dedicated to English music: Handel’s “Coronation Anthems” with Hervé Niquet and his Le Concert Spirituel, “Royal Blood” by the King’s Singers, the lyrical gem “Shakespeare in Songs” by Anne Sofie von Otter, the jazz evening “When I’m 64” with Nigel Kennedy and his band, the journey to the Abbey Road undertaken by the Janoska Ensemble, Britten’s Cello Sonata magnified by Sol Gabetta and Bertrand Chamayou, the world premiere of Thomas Adès’ “Shanty – Over the Sea” by the Basel Chamber Orchestra, the a cappella programme “England’s Finest” with the Tenebrae Choir, the “Scottish Symphony” and excerpts from Mendelssohn’s “A Midsummer Night's Dream” interpreted by Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra St. Petersburg, or, with a journey through the multi-coloured Baroque world, the magnificent evening “London Musick”, presented by Maurice Steger and Rachel Podger.

We had the pleasure of welcoming numerous great artists such as Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Isabelle Faust, Thomas Hampson, Fazil Say, Julia Fischer, Sir András Schiff and Maria João Pires to our chamber music concerts. Within the symphonic field, the concerts of the Gstaad Festival Orchestra conducted by Jaap van Zweden are memorable highlights, first with Khatia Buniatishvili (and the Piano Concerto No. 1 by Tchaikovsky) and the following evening with Sol Gabetta (and the Cello Concerto by Elgar). The orchestra’s expressive tonal language and intoxicating joy of playing delighted the audience and media representatives alike, both at the concerts in Gstaad and at the Rheingau Music Festival in Wiesbaden. The top-class interpretations of Dvorák’s 7th Symphony and Brahms’ 4th Symphony will remain in lasting memory (Brahms’ 4th Symphony was recorded for Gstaad Digital Festival and will be released later this year). Other unforgettable moments included highlights from Bellini’s “I puritani”, performed by Domingo Hindoyan, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and top-class soloists such as Zuzana Marková and Erwin Schrott, performances of Alexandra Conunova (in the Violin Concerto by Sibelius) and Alexandre Kantorow (who interpreted the Piano Concerto No. 2 by Prokofiev) with the Mariinsky Orchestra St. Petersburg and Valery Gergiev, or the Italian opera gala by Juan Diego Flórez.

The Gstaad Academy can also look back on great master classes, ranging from string instruments (violin, viola and cello) to baroque music and conducting. This year, the Gstaad Conducting Academy has once again continued to develop its outreach with the launch of its own video channel, the Gstaad Digital Conducting Academy. In addition, the Conducting Academy, under the direction of Jaap van Zweden, awarded the Neeme Järvi Prize to three outstanding conductors: Andreas Ottensamer, Andreas Hansson and Jakub Przybycień (promotion prize).

We continue our ambition for the Gstaad Digital Festival to offer our audience a digital concert experience with the greatest classical artists. This year, with two live streams and eleven time-delayed streams, around 3000 additional viewers enjoyed the experience Gstaad Menuhin Festival. The platform is growing every year, with more than 14'000 users currently registered … who can already look forward to upcoming releases of concert recordings from the 2021 Festival during autumn: including Nigel Kennedy, Sir András Schiff, Lucienne Renaudin Vary, Bomsori Kim and many other great artists!

Last but not least, from 9 to 30 September 2021, you can vote (on the website of Gstaad Digital Festival) for your favourite “Jeunes Étoiles” of the summer among the seven artists whose matinées in the Gstaad Chapel were recorded and are now available to stream online.