Breaking: Berlin Philharmonic quits major festival
NewsIt has just been announced that the Berlin Phil are pulling out of the German spa’s Easter Festival, ending the partnership in 2025. Berlin will return the following year to the Salzburg Easter Festival.
‘We are very grateful to the Berliner Philharmoniker that they built up the Baden-Baden Easter Festival with us and then combined it twelve times by 2025 with new opera productions and many concerts. The orchestra gave us important impetus for the seven annual Baden-Baden music, opera and dance festivals, which we would like to develop further with other artistic partners at Easter,’ said Baden-baden’s Benedikt Stampa.
‘We are very grateful to the supporters and the entire team of the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden for the many years of friendly cooperation at this special festival,’ said Andrea Zietzschmann, Artistic Director of the Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation.
What’s behind it?
Berlin huffed out of Salzburg Easter Fest a dozen years ago because Baden-Baden was rolling in money from Russian oligarchs and offered vastly inflated fees. That cash has now gone and a squeeze has set in.
Salzburg is not untainted by dubious investors but it has not been affected quite so badly by the Russian-instigated war in Ukraine. A privately-owned festival it received aorund a 15% subsidy from the Austrian State and the city of Salzburg.
As for B-B, it will probably increase its dependency on the heavily compromised Theodor Currentzis and his Kremlin-funded ensembles.
This is the music industry’s first major power shift of the New Year.
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