Verbier Festival Celebrates 30th Anniversary With Momentous Season And Deutsche Grammophon Imprint, July 14-30

Founded 30 years ago by Martin Engstroem, at the end of a dead-end road in the mountains of Switzerland, Verbier Festival is a classical music festival committed to excellence in music performance and education through its highly respected artistic programme, its Academy and Orchestra programs, and UNLTD, its cultural engagement laboratory.

Audiences from around the globe come to experience music-making at the highest level in an intimate setting that provides them unmatched access to star performers, rising talents, and a completely transparent process of learning, rehearsal, and performance. For the last two weeks of every July, the worlds’ top artists clear their schedules and dwell in the atmosphere of music at Verbier. 

Taking place from July 14 to 30, 2023, highlights of the 30th anniversary season include the Verbier Festival debuts of Yo-Yo Ma, Renée Fleming, and Wynton Marsalis; new combinations of superstar artists such as Bryn Terfel and pianist Daniil Trifonov for the first time; Yuja Wang with Klaus Mäkelä playing cello; and more than 60 concerts and 100 free masterclasses, pop-up concerts, buskers, mountaintop musical yoga, pre-concert talks in 2 languages (French and English), and more. Some of the greatest pianists of our time – Yefim Bronfman, Mao Fujita, Richard Goode, Maria João Pires, Mikhaïl Pletnev, and Brad Mehldau – will appear in concert, as well as the 14-year-old prodigy, Tsotne Zedginidze.

Thirty years after having conducted the first concert of the Verbier Festival, Zubin Mehta will return to open the festivities with Yuja Wang in Rachmaninoff’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3. Yo-Yo Ma will make his debut on the Salle des Combins stage accompanied by Leonidas Kavakos and Emanuel Ax on July 16 for an evening of chamber music dedicated to Beethoven. The great trumpet player Wynton Marsalis becomes one of the Festival’s composers in residence, performing on July 22 with his jazz ensemble, and featured as composer in The Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra’s performance of his concerto for violin and orchestra on July 23 and Verbier Festival Orchestra with trumpeter Håkan Harderberger in the European premiere of his concerto for trumpet and orchestra during the closing concert on July 30. 

On July 24, founder and former Deutsche Grammophon Vice President Martin Engstroem has lined up an Anniversary Gala of magnificent proportions, featuring a three part program with more than 40 soloists, including works by Rachmaninoff, Rossini, Saint-Saëns, Chris Hazell, Strauss, Bernstein, and a huge new arrangement of Bach’s Goldberg Variations by Dmitry Sitkovetsky. The evening features performances by Alexandre Kantorow, Evgeny Kissin, Sergei Babayan, Mikhaïl Pletnev, Yefim Bronfman, Kirill Gerstein, Alexander Malofeev, Seong-Jin Cho, Daniil Trifonov, Yuja Wang, Nicolas Altstaedt, Kristóf Baráti, Lisa Batiashvili, Joshua Bell, Nicola Benedetti, Daniel Blendulf, Marc Bouchkov, Gautier Capuçon, Renaud Capuçon, Alexandra Conunova, Lucas Debargue, Alexandra Dovgan, Augustin Dumay, Martin Fröst, Richard Goode, Amihai Grosz, Augustin Hadelich, Håkan Hardenberger, Mathieu Herzog, Daniel Hope, Janine Jansen, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Leonidas Kavakos, Daniel Lozakovich, Klaus Mäkelä, Mischa Maisky, Brad Mehldau, Lawrence Power, Quatuor Ebène, Vadim Repin, Maria João Pires, Lahav Shani, Alexander Sitkovetsky, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Antoine Tamestit, Blythe Teh Engstroem, Eduard Wulfson, Thomas Hampson, Bryn Terfel, Barbara Hendricks, Isabelle Huppert, Marthe Keller, Christoph Eschenbach, Matthias Goerne, Benjamin Bernheim, Gabor Takács-Nagy, and the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra.

The season’s featured concert opera is Wozzeck, performed by the Verbier Festival Orchestra and conductor Lahav Shani, with the charismatic Matthias Goerne in the role of the title soldier on July 27. Accompanied by Evgeny Kissin on the piano, American soprano Renée Fleming debuts in works by Schubert, Liszt, Rachmaninoff and Duparc on July 28. Three members of the musical Kanneh-Mason family join the Verbier family: 26-year-old pianist Isata; 25-year-old violinist Braimah; and 23-year-old Sheku, an alumnus of the Academy, for a chamber music concert on July 28.

The prestigious Academy of the Verbier Festival received nearly 2,400 worldwide applications this year for 140 highly-sought-after 30th anniversary positions. In addition to working with the world’s top conductors and mentorship by leading instrumentalists, Academy participants become part of a “family” and receive access to donors, instrument loans, managers, and other professional services. Notable Verbier Festival Academy alumni, who are this year returning as a new generation of Festival Artists include Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Renaud Capuçon, and Mao Fujita. A series of six concerts dedicated to the Academy entitled “Academy Presents” gives the opportunity to discover the young and talented soloists, chamber music ensembles and opera singers who constitute the next generation. The Verbier Festival Orchestra, whose musicians are aged 18 to 28, presents six concerts this summer. 

The Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra, whose musicians are aged 15 to 18, also marks its 10th anniversary this season led by Music Director James Gaffigan. The Junior Orchestra performs three concerts, including a performance on the last day of the Festival with the singers of the Atelier Lyrique in Stravinsky’s The Rake's Progress.

Students can be re-invited two for the Academy program, for a maximum total of three summers. In addition to traditional artistic training, the festival has recently added an Audio Recording program for recording engineers, as well as a Creative Project Development Residency, as they encourage students to explore new ways of presenting art. Mentors for 2023 include figures such as Lise Davidsen, Renee Fleming, James Gaffigan, Thomas Hampson, Zubin Mehta, Ken Noda, and more.

In honor of Verbier Festival’s 30th season, Deutsche Grammophon announced the launch of Verbier Festival Gold – a joint venture between the two classical music powerhouses – in 2022. Boasting a vast archive overflowing with precious historical gems captured in the Festival’s concert halls in the Swiss Alps, this new record label makes the Verbier Festival experience more accessible to audiences around the world and showcase eminent classical artists, many of them with a close affiliation to the Yellow Label, in unusual formations and repertoire.

Verbier Festival Gold releases a new recording every month, part of the Festival’s commitment to be a pioneer in media. When the Festival was forced to reimagine its summer offering in 2020 due to the pandemic, the Virtual Verbier Festival, in partnership with Medici.tv and Deutsche Grammophon, launched a journey of discovery and celebration into its impressive and extensive archive. The launch of Verbier Festival Gold was one of the first concrete steps in the Verbier Festival's efforts to establish a legacy and impact beyond the physical festival.

Gianandrea Noseda’s 2013 account of Verdi's Requiem marked the first release on Verbier Festival Gold, a performance of legendary caliber with soloists Maria Agresta, Daniela Barcellona, Piotr Beczala, and Ildar Abdrazakov. Since March 2022, the imprint has released 15 albums featuring live performances by loyal Festival artists including Yuja Wang, Bryn Terfel, Kristóf Baráti, Martha Argerich, Daniil Trifonov, Mikhaïl Pletnev, Thomas Quasthoff, Rodion Shchedrin, Kurt Masur, Michael Tilson Thomas, and more.  

On June 9, 2023, Deutsche Grammophon issued Verbier Festival Gold’s first physical release, The Symphonies: A Beethoven Journey, a 5-disc box set of the composer’s nine symphonies recorded over a 13-year period (2009–2022) by Gábor Takács-Nagy and the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra. The resultant cycle of recordings captures their liberated and transformative account of these masterworks, all of which are approached with spontaneity, insight and joy. An innovative booklet features a lively conversation between Takács-Nagy and legendary biographer Jan Swafford (author of Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph).

Since its founding in 1898, iconic cycles of Beethoven’s Symphonies have served as pillars within the vast catalog of Deutsche Grammophon. Clemens Trautmann, CEO of the pre-eminent classical label, expresses his enthusiasm for the release: “There is no better way to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Verbier Festival than with a Beethoven Symphony cycle – a towering oeuvre that has always been revealing about the musical philosophy of the past, while forging innovation of the future. The cycle recorded by Gábor Takács-Nagy and the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra encapsulates the spirit of the Festival where musicians gather for inspired communal music-making in ideal conditions, but – beyond that – it is a rendition that is both artistically reverent and uniquely original. As Beethoven recordings have played a prominent role in shaping Deutsche Grammophon’s legacy, this set is also a beautifully fitting project to mark the successful first year of our joint label, Verbier Festival Gold.”

On June 14, 2023, French publishing house Actes Sud released a biography of Martin Engstroem, Martin Engstroem: De Stockholm à Verbier “Une vie pour la musique,” celebrating the founder and former record executive’s legacy, unique vision, and 30 years of anecdotes from the Verbier Festival. The biography is currently only available in French, but is currently being translated into English by notable British journalist, Charlotte Gardner.

Newly Announced: 30th Anniversary Gala Program – July 24, 2023

SERGEI RACHMANINOFF (1873-1943) – 10 Preludes Op. 23
– Prelude in F-sharp minor Op. 23 No. 1 (Largo) – Alexandre Kantorow
– Prelude in B-Flat Major Op. 23 No. 2 (Maestoso) – Evgeny Kissin
– Prelude in D minor Op. 23 No. 3 (Tempo di minuetto) – Sergei Babayan
– Prelude in D Major Op. 23 No. 4 (Andante cantabile) – Mikhaïl Pletnev
– Prelude in G minor Op. 23 No. 5 (Alla marcia) – Yefim Bronfman
– Prelude in E-flat Major Op. 23 No. 6 (Andante) – Kirill Gerstein
– Prelude in C minor Op. 23 No. 7 (Allegro) – Alexander Malofeev
– Prelude in A-flat Major Op. 23 No. 8 (Allegro vivace) – Seong-Jin Cho
– Prelude in E-Flat minor Op. 23 No. 9 (Presto) – Daniil Trifonov
– Prelude in G-Flat Major Op. 23 No. 10 (Largo) – Yuja Wang

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) – Goldberg Variations arr. D. Sitkovetsky [World Premiere Arrangement]
     (Altstaedt, Baráti, Batiashvili, Bell, Benedetti, Blendulf, Bouchkov, G. Capuçon, R. Capuçon, Conunova, Debargue, Dovgan, Dumay, Fröst, Goode, Grosz, Hadelich, Hardenberger, Herzog, Hope, Jansen, S. Kanneh-Mason, Kavakos, Lozakovich, Mäkelä, Maisky, Mehldau, Power, Quatuor Ebène, Repin, Pires, Shani, A. Sitkovetsky, D. Sitkovetsky, Tamestit,Teh Engstroem, Wulfson)

GIOACHINO ROSSINI (1792-1868) – Cat Duet
     (Hampson, Terfel, Shani)

CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS (1835 – 1921) – Carnaval des animaux Valaisans (arr. M. Herzog)
     (VFCO, Herzog, Hendricks, Huppert, Keller, Debargue, Kantorow, Hope, R. Capuçon, Hope, G. Capuçon, Fröst)
     Text : Antoine Jaccoud
     Illustrations and video animation: Sandra Albukrek
     Staging: Elsa Rooke

CHRIS HAZELL (b. 1948) – Medley de 5 chansons populaires
     – Shenandoah, Traditional (Hampson)
     – Am Brunnen vor dem Tore, F. Schubert, arr. A. Schmalcz (Goerne)
     – Quand on a que l’amour, J. Brel, arr. G.-F. Leuenberger (Bernheim)
     – All through the night, Traditional, arr. C. Hazell (Terfel)
     – Sometimes I feel like a motherless child, Traditional (Hendricks)
          (VFCO, Eschenbach)

Johann Strauss (ii) (1825-1899) – Éljen a Magyar! Hungarian Polka Op. 332
     (VFCO, Takács-Nagy)

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) – Overture de Candide
     (VFCO & Birthday Guests, Mäkelä)

About  Verbier Festival
The Verbier Festival is a classical music festival that encourages sharing between great musicians and young aspiring artists from around the world. It is committed to excellence in music performance and education through its highly respected artistic programme, its Academy and Orchestra programmes, and UNLTD, its cultural engagement laboratory.

Launched in 1994, and now globally renowned, the Festival welcomes audiences with a distinctive and exhilarating blend of events, both large-scale and intimate. Audiences from around the globe come to experience music-making at the highest level in a setting that brings them close to star performers, rising talent and a complete process of learning, rehearsal and performance.

The Festival’s Academy is its respiratory system – a laboratory where future talents are discovered and nurtured. It sets the gold standard for the training of emerging soloists, chamber  and orchestral musicians, singers and conductors. Each summer, audiences witness these musicians in action at more than 100 masterclasses, rehearsals and performances. The Verbier Festival Orchestra has become a rite of passage for today’s exceptional young orchestral musicians and the Academy’s programmes for soloists, chamber musicians and singers include an impressive list of alumni from over 60 countries who have been engaged by the world’s leading concert presenters since their time in Verbier. Learn more at www.verbierfestival.com.