'Klausen klingt'

Reading with musical accompaniment - Bernhard Georg Rusch
"Everything had changed" - from the diary of a soldier

Location: Walthersaal, Klausen
Artists: Bernhard Georg Rusch (actor), Desiree Wöhrer (viola da gamba)
in German

April 1939: A young Viennese man is called to arms. In the following years, he writes a diary to recall this complex period. It is a view of life during the war through the eyes of a private soldier. In between dangerous situations, he talks to his comrades about the girls left at home, wonders when he will be able to go back to washing, when he will finally go on leave, and how he will cope with boredom as he awaits the next confrontation with the enemy.
Actor Bernhard Georg Rusch tells thise true story of his grandfather's experiences.

Musical walk at Sabiona Monastery
Far from home - Ensemble Sonflorii

Location: Holy Cross Church, Sabiona Monastery
Artists: Katharina Adamcyk (voice), Elisabeth Hillinger (voice), Desiree Wöhrer (recorder/viola), Jasmin Vorhauser (recorder), Viktor Töpelmann (viola da gamba), Georg Zopf (lute), Bernhard Georg Rusch (actor)

The highlight of the festival connects thematically with the reading "Far from Home." The first part of the musical excursus takes place in the Holy Cross Church of Sabiona Monastery. Pieces by Henry Purcell and William Shakespeare's contemporaries - such as John Blow, Thomas Morley and John Dowland - allow us to immerse ourselves in English Renaissance music. With a wide variety of instruments, a variety of madrigals, motets and songs are performed scenically, while compositions by English poet Edward Thomas address the grave experiences of loss, the need for belonging and homeland.
Edward Thomas, a combatant during World War I, describes his homeland in lyrical form, expressing thoughts and desires in the form of a diary. Accompanied by dreamlike musical sequences and moving harmonies, he traces his experiences as a soldier, coming across his greatest longing, that of the homeland, again and again.

After this first short concert, the audience is escorted to the next church through the monastery grounds, where they are awaited by a tasting of fine wines among the vineyards. This musical and culinary break is followed by the second short concert in the Church of Our Lady.

This part, focused on Italy, envelops visitors in a more positive, friendly and pleasant world. Turning attention to the famous composer Claudio Monteverdi, works by female composers such as Barbara Strozzi and Francesca Caccini, daughter of Giulio Caccini, are performed. With the often imaginative worship of the opposite sex, the desire for love comes to the forefront.

'Vagabonds à l'ancienne'

Location: Parish Curch St. Andreas, Klausen
Artists: Kurt Gold (accordion/ harpsichord), Aliona Pietrowskaja (violin), Jasmin Vorhauser (recorder/ transverse flute)

Vagabonds à l'ancienne...
... stroll through countries and centuries. We visit Quantz (Potsdam), disturbing him as he teaches Frederick II. Then we pause briefly in Leipzig to hear Bach's organ virtuosity. Finally, we are transported by a time machine to 1987 Moscow to attend Alfred Schnittke's "Suite in Alten Stil" (Suite in the Old Style, ed.). Music is undoubtedly the art form best suited to link eras and peoples. Each musical style and folklore boasts its own clichés, such as Baroque ones, which are also present in contemporary serious and popular music, giving rise to a perspective that connects the centuries and presents each period as a logical consequence of the previous one.

Final concert with Ensemble L'Aminta

Location: Parish Church St. Andreas, Klausen
Artists: Aliona Pietrowskaja (violin), Jasmin Vorhauser (recorder), Karin Hanisdal (cello), Julian Gaudiano (harpsichord)

The music of the early Italian Baroque is a veritable pyrotechnic spectacle of sonic miniatures, difficult to match in terms of the richness of disturbances and melodies. It is a moment of radical turning point: polyphony, developed over the centuries into increasingly complex structures, now gives way to the idea of monody, a song of bewitching beauty that, in all its expressive clarity, floats alone on a single bass line. Moreover, for the first time, compositions of pure instrumental music emerge, the style of which is not yet defined by established forms. Instead, one can clearly perceive the desire of the composers of the time to explore new possibilities and the tension between the "old" and "new" music.

Sonatas for three with different instruments are the focus of the program: while Marco Uccellini captures moments of sound painting in his trio sonatas, Giovanni Battista Fontana brings to life pieces in which the Baroque principles of fantasia and varietas unfold in all their fullness. Dario Castello, on the other hand, focuses on the intensification of dramatic contrasts. Completing the program are the energetic dances and solo virtuosity of Giovanni Bassano, whose elegance and power is as emblematic as Baroque expressive diversity.