The Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna and the Wiener Singverein stand in for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) and the CBSO Chorus.
The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the CBSO Chorus unfortunately had to cancel their participation at the opening concert of this year’s Ouverture spirituelle on Sunday, July 18th due to the mandatory return travel quarantine. To our great pleasure, the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra contacted its members all over Europe in a very short time and was able to win 91 musicians from 18 countries for the project. In order to be able to realize the major work of the evening, the War Requiem by Benjamin Britten, the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna has without hesitation agreed to work with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra to realize this project, which is so important for the festival anniversary, and for which 13 orchestra members to deliver. The Festival would like to thank these two long-term partners for their extraordinary commitment. Special thanks also go to the Wiener Singverein. Despite the vacation period, he immediately agreed to support. Thanks to the cancellation or postponement of vacation by many members of the Wiener Singverein, the large choir has been successfully put together with over 100 choristers. After the cancellation of her orchestra from Birmingham, the conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla immediately agreed to work on the line-up together with the festival and to continue to conduct the concert. The festival is very grateful to the winner of the Young Conductors Award in 2012.
Das City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra hat das War Requiem premiered by Benjamin Britten in 1962 in the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral. The Festival therefore very much regrets that the CBSO cannot come to Salzburg. The fact that musicians from all over Europe will now be performing this concert is an equally strong message that fits particularly well with the founding idea of the Salzburg Festival as a European peace project.
There will be a small change in the program in the new constellation: Instead of Friede auf Erden by Arnold Schönberg, the choral cantata Verleih uns Frieden graciously by Felix Mendelssohn will sound before the War Requiem.
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