Every year, as the days grow longer, Austria gets ready for one of the classical calendar’s highlights: the Vienna Philharmonic’s Summer Night Concert. This event, inaugurated in 2004, brings the prestigious ensemble together with some of the world’s most illustrious soloists—in front of an audience that regularly numbers more than 100,000—in the gardens of Vienna’s world-famous Schönbrunn Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In 2010, the renowned Vienna Philharmonic invited two exceptional artists to join the fun: conductor Franz Welser-Möst and pianist Yefim Bronfman. The program begins with the familiar strains of John Williams's rousing Star Wars theme, the first of several works from the beloved film series which evoke the night's theme of celestial bodies and space travel. The world-class artists also take on Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 2 (interpreted with Bronfman's deft and assured touch), as well as Josef Strauss's Music of the Spheres; the Moon Chorus from Nicolai's The Merry Wives of Windsor; the famed Mars, the Bringer of War from Holst's The Planets; Schumann's Traümerei; and more works to launch us into the stratosphere on a gorgeous summer night.
Photo © Richard Schuster
