Styriarte Festival 2023
Styriarte Festival 2023
The Styriarte 2023 will take place from June 23 to July 23, 2023. Based on Fux's baroque opera "Costanza e Fortezza" from 1723, i.e. exactly 300 years after its premiere in Prague, the Styriarte 2023 will place its programme under the motto "Heroes".
Does the concept of hero hold any meaning for us nowadays? Have heroes not had their day? Apparently not - it looks as though heroes and heroines are back.
Nowadays the heroes of everyday life are held in high esteem, from carers in hospitals to activists for diversity and saving the environment. And due to the war in Ukraine, even the kind of hero that defends our liberty with arms has made a comeback - along with fears and uncertainty and a new understanding of what it really means to be a hero: role models who give us the courage to face up to difficulties no matter how great and find a way out of seemingly hopeless situations.
When the idea for the 2023 Styriarte Festival was conceived, noone had no idea how topical it would prove to be; it relates to an operatic masterpiece by Johann Joseph Fux, but in fact also has much wider implications. Alfredo Bernadini conducts highlights from Fux’s “Costanza e fortezza”, a work about the fight for freedom of the early Roman Republic. But many other ancient heroes of Baroque opera, from Cleopatra and Julius Caesar to the Queen of Sheba, will take centre stage at the 2023 Styriarte.
True heroes from the history of music, like Beethoven, that giant of the Classical period, and courageous women like Clara Schumann, who had to fight to practise her profession, are also brought to the fore in this year’s Styriarte, as are heroes from all walks of life, like Harriet Tubman, who helped slaves to escape. The wide range of performers includes Maestro Jordi Savall, as well as rising stars like Marie Spaemann and Miriam Kutrowatz.
About the Styriarte Festival
Styriarte is an annual summer festival of classical music in Graz and Styria, Austria, established in 1985. It is focused on Early music, Baroque music and music of the Classical period. Intended to showcase the work of Nikolaus Harnoncourt in his hometown, it grew to locations in the region and survived his death.
Leading performers of the festival have included, besides Harnoncourt and Savalli, the Quatuor Mosaiques, Armonico Tributo Austria and Il Giardino Armonico.
After Harnoncourt's death in 2016, conductors Karina Canellakis, Andrés Orozco-Estrada and Jeremie Rhorer appeared in 2016, sharing the planned project to present all Beethoven Symphonies. The number of symphony concerts was reduced from eleven to seven, while the tickets sold stayed almost the same.
Kurt Jungwirth, as Kulturlandesrat responsible for cultural politics in the state of Styria, wanted to tie conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt closer to his hometown Graz. The focus of the first Styriarte was Johann Sebastian Bach, with Harnoncourt's Concentus Musicus Wien playing a leading role. The festival was directed by Andrea Herberstein and Wolfgang Schuster, a member of the Wiener Philharmoniker. The first festival was staged in the summer of 1985.
In 1987, Harnoncourt also conducted the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. The event Ein Fest für Haydn (A feast for Haydn) in Schloss Eggenberg became a success with the audience. In 1988, Christopher Widauer succeeded Herberstein. A year later, the baroque church of Stainz was the first festival venue outside Graz, where Harnoncourt conducted concerts with the Concentus Musicus and the Arnold Schoenberg Chor. In 1991, Mathis Huber succeeded Widauer. In 1992, the focus changed from one composer per year to a motto. Jordi Savall became another internationally known conductor performing for the festival.
Venues of the festival were later also the Römersteinbruch (Roman quarry) in Wagna, the Stift St. Lambrecht, Stift Rein and other locations in Styria, including the newly opened Helmut List Hall from 2003, and the Freilichtmuseum Stübing from 2007. In 2005, a staged production of Bizet's Carmen with Harnoncourt received international attention. From 2007, when the motto was Wanted: Europa, the broadcaster ORF aired concerts live. From 2008 the festival followed the model of the Bayreuth Festival and the Metropolitan Opera in New York, offering "public viewing"; the first work presented was Mozart's Coronation Mass with Harnoncourt in the parish church of Stainz.