Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Tristan und Isolde
). His great achievement was a synthesis of visual, musical, poetic and
dramatic components into a
Gesamtkunstwerk
(single work of art). Wagner's presence
also drew other composers to Bayreuth, most notably Anton Bruckner and Franz Liszt,
Wagner's father-in-law.
As the scores for symphonies became more complex, not the least thanks to Wagner,
Bavarian composers hastened to join in. Richard Strauss (1864-1949), who hailed from
Munich, created such famous symphonies as
Don Juan
and
Macbeth
but later focused on
operas, including the successful
Der Rosenkavalier
(
The Knight of the Rose
).
Last, but not least, there's Munich-born Carl Orff (1895-1982), who achieved lasting
fame with just one work: his life-embracing 1935 cantata
Carmina Burana
, a work char-
acterised by simple harmonies, rhythms and hypnotic repetition. Kloster Andechs, where
he is buried, holds an annual Orff festival.
The most illustrious name in music to
emerge from just across the border in Austria
was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, born in
Salzburg in 1756. On their travels, the Mozart
family visited several places in Bavaria and
played at the court of the prince-elector Max-
imilian III in Munich in 1762. Mozart's birth-
place and his family house can both be visited
Bavaria's 'Oscar' is the porcelain 'Pierrot', which
is handed out to winners of the annual Bavarian
Film Prize at a glitzy ceremony on the stage of Mu-
nich's Cuvilliés-Theatre. Past recipients include
Wim Wenders, Tom Tykwer and Marc Rothemund.
in Salzburg.
First stop for fans of 'serious music' should be Munich where the Münchner Philhar-
moniker are the chart toppers thanks to music director Lorin Maazel. Equally respected is
the Bayerische Staatsoper, currently helmed by California wunderkind Kent Nagano.
Nuremberg's highbrow scene perked up in 2005 when the Bavarian state government el-
evated the municipal theatre to the Staatstheater Nuremberg, whose opera, concert and
ballet productions also get high marks.
Southern Germany maintains a busy festival schedule, but the granddaddy of them all is
the Richard Wagner Festival in Bayreuth. Opened by the maestro himself in 1876 with the
Ring des Nibelungen
opera marathon, it was run by the composer's grandson, Wolfgang
Wagner from 1951 until his death in 2010. Although still a major societal and artistic
event, the festival stagnated under his long leadership and is just beginning to emerge
from his shadow with a recent shake-up of the ticket allocation system and number of oth-
er improvements to the visitor experience.
