8th Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival (31.03-9.04)

The 8th Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival finished on April 9th. This year edition of the Festival was full of various artistic events. We could hear peaceful music, like in Mazurkas by Chopin played by the pianist Nelson Goerner, tempestuous music like the pieces of Beethoven performed by Shanghai Quartet, witty music like Mozart in the performance of the conductor and flutist Patric Gallois, and solemn like in majestic Requiem by Verdi conducted by Antonello Allemandi. Various music but always inspiring and unforgettable.

Amidst 19 concerts of the 8th edition of the Festival there were 3 oratorical, 9 symphonic and 7 chamber concerts. 1700 artists performed at this year edition of the Festival listened by audiences of about 20000.
Over 100 journalists visited this year edition of the Festival. Till May 15th 2004 there were at least 134 articles of the festival written many reviews from the concerts among them. The Festival was covered by the biggest Polish newspapers (Gazeta Wyborcza, Rzeczpospolita, Życie, Życie Warszawy), weekly magazines (Newsweek, Wprost, Polityka, Gala), biweeklies (Viva, Ruch Muzyczny), monthlies (The Warsaw Voice, Gentleman, Sukces, LifeStyle Club) and by foreign press ((New Yorker, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Tages Spiegel, Sud Deutsche Zeitung). The Festival was also broadcast by many Polish radio stations (PR I, PR II, PR III, RMF FM) and such foreign (Bayern4 Klassik and Deutschland Radio Berlin). About 30 times the Festival was to viewers by many television stations like TVP1, TVP2, TVP3, Polsat, TV Polonia. There were many articles on the Internet about the Festival. We were present on CNN website among others. Our website was very popular during the Festival – there were over 5000 entries weekly.

Now, when the 8th edition of the Festival is the thing of the past we are working ceaselessly on the next edition of the Festival. We are the only Polish festival announcing its next year edition’s artists and repertoire a year before it starts. During the concerts of the 8th edition of the Festival one could get the folder informing of the attractions of the 9th edition of the Festival. Among the best world famous artists we will hear: Anne-Sophie Mutter, Sir Andre Previn, Cristina Ortiz, Yuri Bashmet; orchestras: Bachakademie Stuttgart, Bamberger Symphoniker, Monte Carlo Symphony Orchestra, Norddeutsche Rundfunk; conductors: John Neal Axelrod Gabriel Chmura, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Marek Janowski, Jacek Kasprzyk, Jonathan Nott, Krzysztof Penderecki, Helmuth Rilling, Tadeusz Strugała, Antoni Wit. The title of the 9th Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival, held in Warsaw 15-26 March 2005 is Beethoven: Between the Music of the North and the South.
The audience will take part in a musical journey from Baroque to modern times to the North and to the South of Europe.

But before it happens we are going to have almost a year of hard work, meetings, business trips, phone calls, e-mails and talks. At the end of this all there is a fascinating musical journey with Beethoven. If you wew our guest the previous years, you know that during this journey everything can happen...