Easter Festival in Baden-Baden

The Berliner Philharmoniker’s Easter Festival in Baden-Baden has been rescheduled and will take place from 6 to 9 May 2021 – with a shortened programme that includes two performances of Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s rarely performed opera Mazeppa. “Almost exactly a year ago it was clear that for the first time we would not be able to do our usual Easter Festival,” says Kirill Petrenko, chief conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker. “So this year we have set everything in motion – almost moved mountains – to be able to play an opera in Baden-Baden in 2021. To achieve this, we have even stretched the calendar and moved Easter to May.” Provided that the state regulations then in force in Baden-Württemberg permit, the opera with Olga Peretyatko as Maria and Vladislav Sulimsky as Mazeppa will be performed in concert before an audience on 6 and 9 May. In addition, two concerts by the Berliner Philharmoniker and three chamber music events with members of the orchestra are planned. “We are very happy that together with the team of the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden we will be able to present a compact and also attractive festival programme in May with Tchaikovsky’s Mazeppa, chamber music and symphony concerts,” says Andrea Zietzschmann, general manager of the Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation. “This year’s somewhat shortened residency gives the Berliner Philharmoniker the opportunity at last to see their loyal audience in Baden-Baden again.” Advance booking for these events is scheduled to begin on 9 April 2021.

Digital Easter

Over the Easter holidays, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden is offering its free live streaming festival HAUSFESTSPIEL on the internet, featuring among others ensembles with members of the Berliner Philharmoniker. A full-scale Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko can be experienced on Easter Sunday, 4 April 2021 at 17:00 on Arte in a recording of the concert from the Philharmonie Berlin recorded on 20 March. In the Digital Concert Hall of the Berliner Philharmoniker, the concert will also be shown on Easter Sunday at 19:00. “We are delighted to take part in a digital Easter greeting from Baden-Baden with some of our chamber music ensembles,” says Olaf Maninger, principal cellist and media representative of the Berliner Philharmoniker. “We are very grateful to Arte, a close media partner of ours for many years, who will broadcast a recorded concert from the Philharmonie Berlin on Easter Sunday, which means that the Berliner Philharmoniker can at least be experienced on screen at Easter.”

Looking forward to 2022

At the same time, the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden are looking forward with great anticipation to the 2022 Easter Festival, which will take place from 9 to 18 April and continue the programmatic focus on Russia with a new production of Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades as well as Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps, Petrushka and L’Oiseau de feu.