Hollywood in Dresden's Frauenkirche: Hope and Vogler in a duet

Violinist Daniel Hope and cellist Jan Vogler brought a touch of Hollywood to the Frauenkirche at the Dresden Music Festival on Tuesday evening. Accompanied by the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, they performed famous film music by composers such as Florence Price, John Williams and Miklós Rózsa, both solo and as a duet. In particular, their interpretation of the Sinfonia concertante for violin and cello by Rósza, who became famous for his compositions for classics such as "Quo vadis?" and "El Cid", caused a sensation in the church, which was filled to the rafters. The audience celebrated the soloists with applause and bravos as well as the orchestra and conductor Anna Rakitina with standing ovations after Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony in E minor.

With Hope and Vogler, two renowned artists were on stage together, who are also prominent players in Saxony's cultural scene. Hope is music director of the Frauenkirche and Vogler is artistic director of the Dresden Music Festival and artistic director of the Moritzburg Festival for Chamber Music. With their encore, they recalled the composer Erwin Schulhoff, who also lived in Dresden for a time. Unlike the Hungarian Rózsa, who was able to flee from the Nazis to America and caused a sensation there as one of the creators of the "Hollywood sound", the Prague-born composer was interned and died in a camp in Bavaria, said Hope.

Contemporary music forms the focus of the final week of the festival with three further world premieres of works by the British jazz musician Cassie Kinoshi and the US composer Hannah Ishizaki. "My tip: just listen to it and experience new worlds of sound," said Artistic Director Vogler. "This is the music of the future."