The return to life is the evocative title of this year’s Festival Berlioz in the composer’s birthplace of La Côte-Saint-André. In the second half of August leading Berlioz interpreters such as Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Francois-Xavier Roth, Jérémy Rhorer, John Nelson and Valery Gergiev perform key works from Berlioz’s output including Les Troyens à Carthage, La Damnation de Faust, L’Enfance du Christ, Requiem, Symphonie fantastique, Lelio ou Le retour à la vie and Les nuits d’été. The fact that music can finally be performed again after a long period of enforced silence is also another reason for traditional summer festivals in Aix-en-Provence, Glyndebourne, Munich, Salzburg and Lucerne – to name just the most prominent – to celebrate. Bärenreiter features many times with its critical new editions and performance material of Baroque and classical-romantic operas, and in addition, first performances of new concert works by Beat Furrer and Miroslav Srnka feature. Here is an overview of dates. Please check these with the respective organisers beforehand.

Fittingly coinciding with the commemorative year in 2021 to mark the 100th anniversary of Camille Saint-Saëns’ death, a rediscovered choral work by the composer will be published for the very first time. “Super flumina Babylonis” will then be available in three versions.

For each of the ten Mahler symphonies, Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini has composed a short orchestral work which contemplates Mahler’s music and intellectual world. The end of April sees the premiere of the fourth piece, “Incantesimo”.

Bohuslav Martinů composed his “Polní mše” (“Field Mass”) in exile in Paris
This popular work for male voices and ensemble has now been published in an authoritative Edition.

Early in his career Saint-Saëns composed his Oratorio de Noël, an easily accessible work which is now available in an authoritative Urtext Edition.

In his large-scale work “Lobgesang” (“Hymn of Praise”), Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy combines words from the Bible, thoughts from Martin Luther and set pieces from earlier compositions to make a rounded and effective choral-symphonic work.

Frank Peter Zimmermann has performed both of Bohuslav Martinů’s violin concertos with the Berliner Philharmoniker. In an interview the violinist talks about the beauties and challenges of these works.