The Thuringia Young Philharmonic, under the direction of Hans Rotman, specializes in contemporary music. “The Art Festival asked the Orchestra to combine music from today with that of ‘yesterday’—that of the local saint Franz Liszt. Thus resulted a program of correspondences and echoes, with ages and epochs responding to each other,” said the initiators of the Weimar Art Festival, which from this year on will bear the new name of “pèlerinages,” meaning “on the road” or “pilgrimage.” Franz Liszt, composer of the piano cycle “Années de pèlerinage,” turned Weimar into a musical center of European distinction. Nike Wagner, the artistic director of the Festival, wants to carry on the cultural heritage of Weimar in the spirit of Franz Liszt and provide a platform for contemporary art.

During the concert of the Young Philharmonic on August 22, the following works will be performed:

• Franz Liszt: La lugubre gondola—Grief Gondola (third elegy)
• Friedrich Schenker: Les Trombones de Liszt—commissioned work
• Franz Liszt: From the Cradle to the Grave, Symphonic Poem (No. 13)
• Steffen Schleiermacher: Heim.Weh.Nach.Liszt—For Phonola and Orchestra—commissioned work
• Wolfgang Rihm: La lugubre gondola/The Polar Sea, in memoriam Luigi Nono
• Luigi Nono: … sofferte onde serene …

Tickets (12 Euro) are available through the ticket hotline on 03643-745 745. The concert will take place in the congress centrum neue weimarhalle, Unesco-Platz 1, 99423 Weimar. For further information about the Weimar Art Festival, please visit the Festival’s website at www.kunstfest-weimar.de.

The Weimar Art Festival epitomizes the main activities and goals of the Schering Stiftung in a special way. The Festival revolves around the outstanding composer Franz Liszt, who was born in Hungary, yet at home in Europe. In light of the enlargement of the European Union through the accession of several central and eastern European countries, the title “pèlerinage” has a programmatic significance. The carefully chosen program, which reflects on the work of Franz Liszt in many different ways and thus allows for a contemporary appreciation, opens up possibilities for unusual, new views of the composer.