Mozart Festival

Mozart Festival (Mozartfest)

June-July

The only time Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) spent in Würzburg was when he stopped there for some coffee while traveling between Salzburg and Frankfurt, but the German city has hosted a Mozart Festival in early summer each year since 1922, with the exception of a nine-year interruption during and after World War II. Daily concerts of Mozart's symphonies, concertos, sonatas, motets, sacred vocal works, and operas are performed from early June to early July, with little repetition due to the vast number of such works.
Würzburg's churches, palaces, and fortresses often serve as locations for the concerts, the most impressive being Prince Bishop's Residence, considered one of Europe's most stunning baroque palaces. Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik is performed on Saturday evenings in the torchlit garden of the Residence, while indoor concerts are given in the elaborate baroque Kaisersaal (Imperial Hall), which has a ceiling fresco painted by Giovanni Tiepolo (1696-1770), the great Italian artist.
Musical groups that have performed at past festivals include the Würzburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bambert Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Chamber Orchestra, and the Amadeus Quartet.

CONTACTS:
Mozartfest-Kartenburo
Haus zum Falken, Marktplatz 9
Wurzburg, 97070 Germany
49-931-372-33-6; fax: 49-931-373-93-9
www.mozartfest.de

SOURCES:
MusFestEurBrit-1980, p. 102