Europe by Ear
Europe used to spend its summers displaying castles, cathedrals, ruins and mountain vistas. Nowadays, sightseeing is being heavily supplemented by music-hearing. From metropolis to hamlet the cry echoes: "Let's start a festival!" One happy hamlet that has followed the call is Germany's Bad Bertrich (pop. 800), nestled on a hillside 45 miles from Coblenz, near the Moselle river. It is moderately well known for its waters (good for stomach, gall bladder and liver disorders) and its 18th century castle, onetime residence of Prince-Bishop Clement Wenceslaus. Only a few years ago, tourists in Bad Bertrich seemed to be just about as dead as Clement: the bath houses were in disrepair, the castle was falling apart, and mighty few American or even British gall bladders were in evidence. Then, a new administrative director named Wilhelm Hammer set out to find a good reason for a music festival.
Sure enough, it turned out that good Prince-Bishop Wenceslaus had been a patron of music. His favorites: one Vincenzo Righini (1756-1812) and one Josef Martin Kraus (1756-92), who once had a symphony conducted by Haydn. That was all Impresario Hammer needed to know. Now a baroque-music week is a permanent fixture in Bad Bertrich. This year's festival gets under way next month with music by Righini and Kraus, plus Mozart, Haydn and Schumann. It will be played in the castle's candlelit hall, dominated by portraits of the Prince-Bishop and his sister Kunigunde. Officials are hoping for close to 10,000 visitors.
Mediterranean to Baltic. Not all festivals can offer a patroness named Kunigunde, or a liver cure, but in their own way, 43 villages, towns and cities in West Germany are staging "musical manifestations" this summer. In the rest of Europe, from Mediterranean to Baltic Sea, there are some half a hundred more. Seventeen of them have found it advisable to band together to avoid conflicts in scheduling, programming and hiring of artists, and to prevent rivalries from breaking out.
Both Wuerzburg and, this year, Hannover have moved in on Mozart programs, which used to be virtually cornered by Salzburg, while Italy's Bari, hitherto barely in the festival swim, is patting itself on the back for having landed a prize catch this year: Pianist Artur Rubinstein. Doing the festival rounds even faster than the fleetest-footed music tourist will be a gaggle of other big-name artists. The speed and distance record probably goes to famed German Soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, who will dash between Scandinavia (Helsinki, Bergen), Switzerland (Lucerne), Belgium (Ostend), France (Aix and Besanqon) and Spain (Granada). Almost as agile will be the U.S.'s own great Philadelphia Orchestra, whose stops will include Lugano, Vienna, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Stockholm, Helsinki.
Florence to Munich. Many festival cities are near saturation point. Last year Florence's 8,000 spare beds were entirely insufficient to handle the 600,000 out-of-towners who were in the city during the Maggio Musicale. Hardly any of the festivals show a profit (most of them are subsidized), but tradespeople consider them fine for cashing in on the tourist dollar. This summer 600,000 U.S. visitors are expected in Europe. The more dedicated festivalgoers have written for tickets a year or so in advance, but travel agencies still book a symphony concert as handily as a gondola ride. Tourists who do not know what they ought to like in the way of culture can turn themselves over to one of the new package tours being conducted by professional music guides. They pick up the customer at Idlewild Airport, shuffle him through a pattern of the right sights and sounds, then deposit him back on U.S. soil. Typical cost: $1,500 for six weeks.
What does the music tourist have to choose from in Europe? He may wander through the Alps to the Swiss town of Fribourg, where he will be nearly swamped under the crush of 3,000 yodelers, on hand to compete for the tenth national championship. On his Rhine journey he may stop off in Coblenz to hear Johann Strauss's A Night in Venice, waterborne on a float in a quiet inlet of the river. Or he may try a harmonica and accordion festival in Nuernberg, where the best West German bands will be chosen at the end of this month. To escape from the harmonicas, he may try the palace of Herrenchiemsee near Munich, where chamber music will be performed by the light of 4,000 candles. If, on the other hand, he wants solid fare with a lather of expensive soloists and music he might recognize, he can follow his ears almost anywhere.
Edinburgh (Aug. 21-Sept. 10) will have as bulky a line-up as ever with the BBC Symphony, the Berlin, New York and London Royal Philharmonic orchestras, the Glyndebourne opera, an all-.star trio (Pianist Solomon, Violinist Zino Francescatti, Cellist Pierre Founder), plus a score of others.
Salzburg (July 24-Aug. 30) continues to concentrate on its very own Mozart, but its big news this year is the world premiere of German Composer Werner Egk's opera Irish Legend. Other items: new sets for Mozart's Magic Flute by brilliant Austrian Expressionist Oskar Kokoschka, star-led concerts by the Vienna Philharmonic.
Bayreuth (July 22-Aug. 21) will present seven Wagner operas (The Ring cycle, Flying Dutchman, Tannhdueser,
Parsifal) staged by the composer's grandsons, in a style unmatched by any of the world's opera houses. Metropolitan Soprano Astrid Varnay and Tenor Ramon Vinay will sing several of the top roles.
Ansbach, Germany, for no reason except enthusiasm and the fact that the old Bach stronghold, Leipzig, is now behind the Iron Curtain, puts on its annual Bach festival (July 23-30). On hand: Spanish Guitarist Andres Segovia, U.S. Harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick. Featured choral work: the B-Minor Mass.
Munich will present its famed opera festival (Aug. 12-Sept.11), with performances by the Bavarian State Opera.
On the imposing agenda: seven each by Wagner and Richard Strauss, four by Mozart and one each by Handel and Pfitzner.
Wuppertal, at 109, one of the oldest music festivals of all,* will star Composer Paul Hindemith, conducting his new oratorio, Ite Angeli Veloces (June 4-6).
Aix-en-Provence, France, already a center for painters, added music in 1948.
The three-week festival (July 10-31) is underwritten, among other sponsors, by the local gambling casino. This summer's fare: operas by Gluck, Mozart and Gounod; three orchestras including the Paris Conservatory, plus Paris' top-notch Loe-wenguth Quartet.
Prades (July 2-18) will present famed Cellist Pablo Casals, 78, in his sixth festival, this one devoted to music of Bach, Schubert and Brahms. Other soloists: Violinist Yehudi Menuhin; Pianists Eugene Istomin and Mieczyslaw Horszowski; Singers Eleanor Steber, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Jan Peerce.
Bergen, Norway, will be gay with folk dancing and flags for its third annual festival (May 26-June 7). Famed for its musical sons Edvard Grieg and Violinist Ole Bull, the city will feature Scandinavian music played by Bergen and Copenhagen orchestras. Star soloist: Russian Violinist David Oistrakh.
Holland will stage performances in The Hague-Scheveningen, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and 13 cities and other towns (June 15-July 15). Besides the first-rate Concertgebouw and Hague Residentie orchestras, the Israel Philharmonic. Milan's La Scala opera and the New York City Ballet will perform.
Rome, in the ancient Baths of Caracalla (June 30-Aug. 28), and Verona, in the Roman Amphitheater (July 20-Aug.
15), will set some of Italy's top singers (Fedora Barbieri, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Mario Del Monaco) in heroic operatic surroundings.
Venice (Sept. 11-25), which does not specialize in big-name performers at its respected annual modern-music fete, nevertheless lias its big-name composers. This year's big event: the world premiere of Prokofiev's The Flaming Angel. The opera was finished in the '20s but never got a Russian performance, presumably because of its religious theme.
* The oldest: England's Three Choirs Festival held this year in Hereford, which is some 250 years old.
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