Dresden Music Festival ends with record result

The Dresden Music Festival has recorded its 47th edition as a complete success. "In the past four and a half weeks, around 65,000 visitors flocked to the 60 events. The occupancy rate of 93 percent shows that the opening of the festival to new formats has met with a great response from the audience," the festival announced on Sunday. With ticket revenues of more than two million euros, the festival has had its most successful year to date.

"We have risked a lot and gained a lot," explained artistic director Jan Vogler. The wide variety of genres had convinced the audience. In the evening, East Germany's best-known classical music festival was to end with a concert by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jakub Hrusa.

The festival has offered a wide variety of styles since May 9 - from Richard Wagner to rock musician Sting, from the King's Singers to jazz musician Stacey Kent and world musician Anoushka Shankar. The highlights of the festival included the concert performance of Wagner's "Walküre" on period instruments with the Dresden Festival Orchestra and Concerto Köln and conductor Kent Nagano, as well as the opening concert by the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam under Klaus Mäkelä.

This year's Dresden Music Festival was held under the motto "Horizons" and offered a total of 60 concerts. But fans won't have to wait that long for the new edition from May 17 to June 14, 2025. There will already be a festival intermezzo in September: a chamber music super trio with violinist Leonidas Kavakos, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Emanuel Ax will perform at the Kulturpalast (September 2). The Vienna Philharmonic will follow on September 17 with Christian Thielemann conducting.