Live on Fidelio: Festival of Joy

The Mauthausen Committee presents the Festival of Joy – a concert of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra in memory of the National Socialist terrors.

fidelio will livestream this year’s Festival of Joy on Vienna’s Heldenplatz with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and Finnish conductor Eva Ollikainen. The concert will hold memory of Holocaust victims and the joy of the 74th anniversary of the liberation from the National Socialist reign of terror. Highlight of the ceremony will be a speech by contemporary witness and concentration camp survivor Shaul Spielmann.

This year’s musical programme will again be closely related to the overall theme of the festivities: human rights. The programme draws a musical arc from the turmoil of the pre-war period to the horror of dictatorship and the joy of the ultimate triumph of humanity. Beginning with Ravel's melancholy tone poem "La Valse" to the depressing and powerful 10th Symphony from Shostakovich to Arvo Pärt's deeply spiritual "Fratres" with star violinist Pekka Kuusisto. Before the traditional finale with the "Ode to Joy", which this time Special Guest Conchita will sing together with the audience, we will hear a violin-arranged version of the song of Marietta from Erich Wolfgang Korngold's opera "Die tote Stadt", forbidden by the Nazis, and the Rondo finale from Mahler's Fifth Symphony.

Tune in for the live stream on 8 May at 19:30!

PROGRAMME:

Aaron Copland - Fanfare from his symphony no. 3

Maurice Ravel - "La Valse", a choreographic poem for Orchestra

Dmitri Schostakowitsch - Symphony no. 10 in E minorl Op. 93, 2nd movement (Allegro)

Arvo Pärt - "Fratres" for violin, string orchestra and drums

Erich Wolfgang Korngold – Marietta‘s Song from "Die tote Stadt" Op. 12

Gustav Mahler - Symphony no. 5 in C sharp minor, 5th mov

Production year 2019
Genre Live Event
Original title Fest der Freude
Recording location Heldenplatz, Wien