Live recordings of world-class performances from Germany.

The new season, which starts in October 2023, presents concerts from
renowned German classical music festivals.

DW Radio and PRX will release a new season of Deutsche Welle Festival
Concerts – classical music made in Germany – in October 2023. Our host,
Cristina Burack, will take you through the country's best classical
music festivals for exciting, moving and diverse performances, with
music ranging from the Baroque to the 21st century. The season's 13
episodes will visit such major musical events as the Bach Festival,
Beethoven Festival, Mozart Festival and Bayreuth Festival. In addition,
you'll hear directly from musicians, conductors and festival directors
as they share exclusive behind-the-scenes insight into the pieces and
performances.

In 2023, the city of Leipzig celebrated "300 years of Bach in Leipzig."

In 1723, the famous composer Johann Sebastian Bach came to the Saxon
city to take up the position of Thomaskantor, or music director, which
he held until his death in 1750. He wrote many beautiful cantatas during
his first year in the position. Today, the pieces are sung by choirs all
over the world. These cantatas were the central attraction at the 2023
Bach Festival. In this season of DW Festival Concerts, we present the
festival's opening concert, which features the St. Thomas Boys choir
performing some of these beloved first-year cantatas. The selection
includes favorites of renowned early music conductors Ton Koopman and
Philippe Herreweghe.

We also bring you a French evening from the Rheingau Festival that
includes works by Hector Berlioz, while the concert from the Mozart
Festival in Würzburg is all about the Mozart and his idols, including
Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach. The Bayreuth Festival episode delivers
highlights from a new production of "Parsifal," Richard Wagner's last
opera. Listeners will be treated to the unique sound of the Bayreuth
Festival Theater, which was designed by Wagner himself.

The chamber music festival "Spannungen" ("Tensions"), in Heimbach,
offers up intimate and moving music from Mozart to Ravel as part of a
tribute to the festival's late founder.

Our season also includes multiple concerts from the Beethoven Festival
in Bonn, the composer's birthplace. Conductor Paavo Järvi opens the
multiweek event leading the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich in Dvořák's
Symphony No. 9 ("From the New World") and his Cello Concerto op. 104,
with the passionate Russian cellist Anastasia Kobekina as the soloist.
Also on the program is Arthur Honegger's "Pacific 231." Another exiting
episode features famous mandolin player Avi Avital and the New York
string quartet Brooklyn Rider playing a selection of chamber music
spanning some 300 years!