05. September

The 55th Menuhin Festival: a blazing edition!

The 55th Menuhin Festival Gstaad celebrated its last round of fireworks this weekend with an evening of music by Bach, Haydn and Mendelssohn with Emmanuel Pahud and the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra at the church in Saanen on Friday, and a Romantic celebration featuring Saint-Saëns’ First Cello Concerto (soloist: Sol Gabetta) and Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in the Festival Tent on Saturday.

Stable attendance (with some 20’000 visitors), an offering of pedagogical events of growing renown (including the magnificent 3rd edition of the Gstaad Vocal Academy led by Cecilia Bartoli and her mother), and the Gstaad Festival Orchestra’s second season with two extraordinary concerts under the direction of Kristjan Järvi on 12 and 13 August: the organizers have more than enough reasons to smile. And the fête has not ended yet! The Gstaad Festival Orchestra departs on a concert tour in Germany and Liechstenstein this autumn, a superb ambassador for the festival as well as for the region. And the expectations for 2012…