Discoveries for all the senses: Richard Strauss Days await with many treasures

Only one thing clouds Dr.

Dominik Sedivy's mood is something: the strict Corona requirements.

He won't let it spoil his anticipation for the Richard Strauss Days.

The director of the institute is simply too happy that these can take place at all and that he can offer his audience a number of discoveries.

• Richard Strauss Days: Corona-related conditions for concerts are much stricter than expected.

• Listeners expect many unknown works that open up a new approach to the composer.

• The Werdenfelserei's chefs create a symphony of pleasure in honor of Richard Strauss.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen

- free time, knows Dr. Dominik Sedivy doesn't. At least not at the moment. The director of the Richard Strauss Institute has been in his Garmisch-Partenkirchen office almost every day since Pentecost. Often until late in the evening. Now, a few days before the start of the series of events in honor of the world-famous composer, there are still a few night shifts in order. These do not matter to the musicologist, for him joy prevails. Also about the fact that the Strauss Days can take place at all. After the six-figure deficit that had accumulated under Alexander Liebreich's artistic direction in 2019, this was also up for debate in the local council, which ultimately decided to restart in a more modest setting and against a festival.

Sedivy is not alluding to that, rather he thinks of the corona-related restrictions when he says: "It's great that we can start again." Before that happened, he and his colleagues had to overcome a number of obstacles.

Play through different scenarios.

And yet throw it all over again.

A good two weeks before the start of the Richard Strauss Days, which will take place from Thursday, June 24th to Sunday, June 27th, it was finally clear which rules of the game apply.

It's much stricter than Sedivy and his team had imagined.

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A clear sign: the flags on Richard-Strauss-Platz indicate the series of events.

© Peter Kornatz

With this in mind, all concerts take place in the Werdenfels festival hall.

“We are not allowed to occupy every sixth place there, as assumed, but only every eighth place,” Sedivy regrets.

Converted this means that each listener has eleven square meters available.

And that in the large congress hall, which actually offers space for up to 878 people, only 109 can enter.

“Extreme,” says the institute director.

Otherwise, he does not want to comment on these specifications.

"We try to strategically handle the whole thing as well and satisfactorily as we can."

The music band gets the Garmisch-Partenkirchner in the mood for the Strauss Days

Sedivy doesn't let the corona-related restrictions spoil her joy. Actually “everything is prepared and we are well within budget,” he says. If he looks at the offer that he has put together on behalf of GaPa Kultur gGmbH, he is convinced that “it will be really cool”. He thinks above all of the unknown works that he presents to his audience. The first version of Strauss' Cello Sonata played by Raphaela Gromes is one of them, as are the world premieres - on the one hand the Concert Overture in B minor (Camerata Salzburg with horn player Johannes Hinterholzer), on the other hand two songs that mezzo-soprano Petra Lang will sing. These are real treasures - also for Sedivy.

The Partenkirchen music band has also raised one of these. With the tailor's polka, which Strauss composed when he was six, they get to know a work that was previously unknown to them. Sepp Grasegger junior calls this piece “relaxed”, which is supplemented by the “Ceremonial Entry of the Knights of the Order of St. John” and “Also Spoke Zarathustra”. The chairman and his ensemble had to postpone the original idea of ​​rehearsing their own program for the unofficial start of the Strauss Days due to Corona. “That would not have worked, we have only been allowed to rehearse for three weeks.” What the 20 musicians - more are currently not allowed on the stage in the Kurpark Partenkirchen - are offering on Wednesday, June 23, still has a lot to do with that Choice Garmischer. Next to him they have chosen Richard Wagner,Johannes Brahms and Gioachino Rossini decided. How these are connected with Strauss, Grasegger will tell the audience to whom he wants to bring this music closer. The program is a challenge, he admits. One that the musicians are happy to face. “Everyone is on fire, we have a highlight concert every year, that's one of them.” And one more, after which the audience can enjoy the St. John's fires.

Inspired by the Alpine Symphony, eighth graders paint colorful pictures

The youngsters in the eighth full-day class at the Bürgermeister-Schütte-Schule have also created something very special.

Under the guidance of the Krün artist Manuela Dilly, they discovered the Alpine Symphony and captured 16 pictures from it on canvas.

The young artists responded to the moods created by the music and put them into practice in a painterly manner.

The result: a cycle of colorful paintings.

The chefs at Werdenfelserei were also inspired by Strauss' sounds and created a symphony of pleasure. For the Alpine Symphony, for example, there is mountain trout with nettle, radish, apple and ancient grains. Sven Karge and Christian Hahn arranged the tone poem “Ein Heldenleben” for the main course - Werdenfelser lamb with Ettaler yogurt, garden peas, wild mint and elderflower jus. And for the opera “Der Rosenkavalier” they serve the dessert with wild rose, currant, curd cheese and meringue. "We are happy to make a contribution to the Strauss Days," emphasizes hotel manager Monika Erhardt. "For Garmisch-Partenkirchen it is simply great to have such a top-class event."

With this she speaks Sedivy from her soul. The director of the institute is happy that after the forced break last year, during which nothing could take place due to the pandemic, concerts in front of an audience can finally be heard again. In addition, he feels “particularly connected” to everything that is offered during these four, actually five, days.