UNESCO concert for Peace 2025

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of founding the World Orchestra for Peace, musicians from many countries came together to play music by Bach.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of founding the World Orchestra for Peace, musicians from many countries came together at the peaceful and magically beautiful Community of Taugl, in the foothills of the Austrian Alps. Here, at St. Koloman, they performed music by J.S. Bach.

After the opening Orchestra Suite No. 3 (BWV 1068), you will hear a short address by co-founder Charles Kaye, remembering how the orchestra came about. You will see clips from a surprise concert for Sir Georg Solti's 80th birthday at Buckingham Palace and the World Orchestra for Peace at the 50th anniversary of UNESCO in Geneva and hear Solti's question, which is sadly as relevant today as it was over thirty years ago: “We musicians from around the world can produce a united Europe and a united World – why can't the politicians do that”?

The concert ends with the mundane Cantata “Geschwinde, geschwinde, ihr wirbelnden Winde“ (Swift, swift, you swirling winds) (BWV 201). This contest between Phoebus (Apollo) and Pan, on a libretto by Picander, was composed for the Collegium musicum which performed it at Zimmermann's coffeehouse in 1729 under Bach's direction. The plot is based on the “Ears of a donkey story in Ovid's Metamorphoses and mocks unsophisticated music in favour of a more complex composing style. Needless to say, that Phoebus wins, but Pan has the better tunes.

Musicians of the World Orchestra for Peace. Conductor of the Cantata Martin A. Fuchsberger. Leaders Krzysztof Wisniewski and Pablo Saravi.

Production year 2026
Production Company World Orchestra for Peace and Taugler Liedertage
TV Director Klemen Adamlje
Duration 110min.
Video format HD