In keeping with this year’s “Places of longing” theme, the Audi Summer Concerts will present a versatile program July 13-28 with international classical music stars performing on alternating stages. Awaiting the audience is a spectrum ranging from early music with gambist Jordi Savall to a violin duo program with Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Pekka Kuusisto. The Finnish violinist is a focus of this year’s festival and will perform at the open-air concert, amongst other performances.
The Audi Summer Concerts push boundaries and conventions and explore new potential with music at special venues
Such venues as the Museum for Concrete Art (July 18) and the Lechner Museum (July 22). There is also unusual repertoires like a silent film with live improvised accompaniment on organ (July 24). Or unusual instrumentation such as the classical string quintet with electric trio (July 28).
The Audi Young Persons’ Choral Academy will celebrate its tenth anniversary during the festival and will be performing together with the Academy for Ancient Music. Under the direction of Martin Steidler, the two ensembles will perform Joseph Haydn’s “Schöpfung” (Creation) (July 19). The Youth Persons’ Choral Academy celebrated its stage premiere with this oratorio at the Summer Concerts in 2008. Haydn’s work also forms the thematic reference point for the performance of “Gegenentwürfe” (Alternative Concepts) (July 22) in the Lechner Museum. In this partnership between Stadtjugendring Ingolstadt and Audi ArtExperience, young people from different cultural backgrounds work together creatively under the supervision of music instructors.
During the music festival, the Museum of Concrete Art is for the program of violin duo Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Pekka Kuusisto. The Finnish artist is a focus of this year’s Audi Summer Concerts and feels at home in the classical canon of concerts as well as in electronic music, jazz or heavy metal. At the Festival’s open-air opening concert (July 13), the versatile musician will perform on an electric violin, among other things. At the side and as conductor of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, he presents a program with predominantly Scandinavian literature, supplemented by Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1.
In the Asamkirche Maria de Victoria church, the world-renowned cellist Sol Gabetta will perform the Cello Concerto No. 2 “Presence” by Pēteris Vasks (July 20), together with the Basel Chamber Orchestra. The Schumann Quartet with clarinettist Andreas Ottensamer (July 21) can also be experienced here.
For the first time, the Audi Summer Concerts 2018 will also host a salon concert within the four walls of a classical music fan
All Ingolstadt residents may apply online at www.sommerkonzerte.de/salon until May 20 to host the private concert. The winner can invite up to 15 guests to the performance of a pair of musicians on July 15.
The international focus of the Audi Summer Concerts is underscored by the Georgian Chamber Orchestra. It features in the open-air program “I like to be in America” (July 14). Conducted by the Armenian Ruben Gazarian, the orchestra will perform together with Turkish pianist and civil rights activist Fazil Say. The second part of the concert will be arranged by the Audi Wind Philharmonic Orchestra, founded in 1962, under Alejandro Vila with literature by Leonard Bernstein and Cole Porter.
Many other stars of classical music will be guests. 32-year-old Finnish conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali will perform together with pianist Nikolai Lugansky and the Philharmonia Orchestra London (July 17). Meanwhile, gambist, conductor and musicologist Jordi Savall will appear as a guest performer at the Salzburg Festival (July 25).
Organist Cameron Carpenter will present his improvisations for the 1927 silent film “Berlin – Die Sinfonie einer Großstadt” (Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis).
The Audi Summer Concerts will conclude with a club night (July 28) in cooperation with the Taktraumfestival. During this event, a string quintet from PODIUM Esslingen will merge with the French producer-singer-trio dOP. They will combine electronic music with classical string sounds merging two genres while putting a fitting end to the program.
Program details for all concerts and tickets are available at www.sommerkonzerte.de. Advance booking starts on March 3 at 10:00 a.m.
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