The program of the 36th edition of the Festival includes a total of 57 productions, 91 concerts, including 66 premieres and premieres, 20 talks, and numerous workshops and other supporting events. In addition to the Musikverein and Vienna Konzerthaus, the 36 sites in 14 districts also include the Klosterneuburg Monastery, the Karlsplatz Opera Corridor, the Brunnen Corridor and the City Park for the first time this year.
60 string players distributed over three rooms
Things start moving on October 31, when Maria Statner invites you for a walk in the city park. The interactive musical score “Fanfare allez ensemble” by two woodwind orchestras, a punk band and a pop duo leads from the entrances to the garden and children’s garden into a communal ritual experience in the centre, supported by the polychromy of music and light based art.
The doors of the Vienna Konzerthaus are opened for the subsequent opening concert: “moving from vocal composition to composition,” the score “Saitenraum II” distributes 60 string players from the Vienna Symphony Orchestra across three rooms, coordinated with millisecond precision. Over 60 different percussion tracks that musicians can play via earphones.
From 50 pianos to a white dog
In “11,000 Strings,” Georg Friedrich Haas takes visitors on a space journey through an acoustic space with 50 pianos distributed throughout the room. Hannes Seidl brings “21 Songs” to the subway corridor at Karlsplatz, Olga Neuwirth designs a kind of flash mob in public space in “Gasatime Concert” and Peter Cotten, Florian Kindlinger and Kristina Kubis create a large space for “Phantom Voltage”. “.with objects, sculptures, electronics and sounds.
“Zeitenverwesung” by Judith Unterpertinger is having its monastery premiere at the Klosterneuburg Monastery. In her “Gsatem Party,” which included about 100 participants, 120 frogs, and a little white dog, Olga Neuwirth brought to life the chaotic work of the young Joseph Haydn.
This year’s composition award goes to the Nemecri group of Vienna-born Alessandro Patici and Rafal Zalic. New music dean Kurt Schwertzik has created a stage adaptation of “Alice in Wonderland.”
Program for young audiences
The festival also offers a program for young festival visitors. For example, Pawel Romanczuk invites children aged six and up to the forest in Vienna. There he performed his collection of small musical instruments with his band Male Instrumenty. Meanwhile, Cordula Posze and her team bring together young musicians with interested parties of all ages through their productions “Junge Musik” and “Matinee Petite”.
Event notification:
The 36th edition of the Vienna Modern Festival under the slogan “Go – Movement in Space”, from October 31 to December 2, 2023, in 36 different venues
The bells of St. Stephen’s Cathedral are part of the festival
The end of the festival is celebrated with a sound march with 20 bagpipes and more. Star architect Peter Zumthor, 80, will program 13 concerts and eight speaking workshops as part of the Perspectives programme. After that there will be an opportunity to dance at the modern party.
Zumthor’s son Peter Conradin Zumthor is also represented at the festival and plays with the bells of St. Stephen’s Cathedral in “Domglocken con sordino”. Claudio Abbado’s concert honors Friedrich Serha, who died this year, with a performance of his first orchestral work, “Fasce.” A memorial service is also scheduled for Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, who died in June.
