"Begegnung" – the Camerata Salzburg's own festival: Brought into being by Sándor Végh, continued by Sir Roger Norrington and Leonidas Kavakos and to be continued until now. "Begegnung" aims to create encounters with music, ideas and personalities
Festival "Begegnung 2012"
From
May 3 to 6, 2012 the next festival "Begegnung" will take place, and the Camerata Salzburg is celebrating the 60th birthday of the orchestra as well as Sándor Végh's 100th birthday. Look forward to many highlights: meetings with members of the Camerata Salzburg, Alexander Lonquich, the world famous conducter and pianist as well as his wife and artistic partner, Cristina Barbute, or the international renowned Hagen-Quartett and the famous violonists Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Benjamin Schmid. And also a former student of Maestro Végh, today a Maestro himself will return to the Camerata festival: Gérard Korsten.
Program "Begegnung 2012" (German Only!)
Encounter with Sándor Végh
The Salzburg Spring Festival "Begegnung" was founded by Sándor Végh in the early 1990s. The objective was to assemble musical friends from all over the world for one weekend in Salzburg and make music together in the legendary Great Hall of the Mozarteum Salzburg. Artists such as Gidon Kremer, Oleg Maisenberg, Thomas Zehetmair, the Cherubini Quartet and many others followed Vegh´s invitation. From the very beginning, the familial atmosphere between the audience and the artists was an important characteristic of this festival.
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Encounter with Sir Roger Norrington
After the death of Sándor Végh in 1997, Sir Roger Norrington undertook the artistic direction of the Camerata Salzburg. He also breathed new life into the Festival "Begegnung", programming Brahms, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Beethoven, Haydn, Bach and Purcell: In eight years of Encounters, Sir Roger Norrington guided us through entire oeuvres and epochs – from the Romantic Age to the Baroque Era. Sir Roger created these spring weekends in Salzburg in the same spirit as his "Experience" concerts in London. This cycle was completed with the music of Henry Purcell in 2006.
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Homage to Sándor Végh
The "Begegnung" in 2007 was conceptualized as an homage to Sándor Végh, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of his death. His erstwhile students and companions assembled in Salzburg to undertake a musical appraisal together with the Camerata Salzburg. The programs focused on works which are closely connected to the name Sándor Végh and to the "Camerata Academica". The guest artists were Gérard Korsten, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Alexander Janiczek, Miklos Perenyi and Leonidas Kavakos.
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Encounter" with Leonidas Kavakos
With the season 2007/2008 Leonidas Kavakos was appointed Artistic Director. He continued the well-established festival and highlighted different topics each year.
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2008: Nature
In 2008, the topic 'Nature' was the focus of the Encounter: To feel the nature of music, and to experience music in nature is a well-nigh perfect consummation of art and sensuality. The rushing sound of the rivers, the roaring of the waterfalls, the blackbirds' fluting song at dawn: Time and again, the sounds of nature have inspired composers to immortalize them in their works. In 2008 our visitors had the opportunity, together with Leonidas Kavakos, James Gaffigan, Benjamin Schmid and a series of "natural" compositions, of enjoying a musical walk through groves and meadows.
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2009: Night
From days of old, popular belief has always seen 'night' as a time of spectres, but allegorically, the concept 'night' is of course a far broader one and as such, it is a motive that is popularly and frequently chosen in literature and music. Indeed, Nietzsche described music as "the art of night and twilight". Characteristic examples of music from that era are the Nocturnes by Frédéric Chopin and his predecessor John Field, interpreted by Alexei Lubimov; but also Johann Sebastian Bach, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Felix Mendelssohn occupied themselves with 'night' as a motive, each in his own distinctive manner. While Mendelssohn in his "Midsummer Night's Dream" transports us into the mythical forests of kings and elves, Mozart introduces us to the nightlife in Salzburg's aristocratic circles.
Programm (in German)
Begegnung 2008 (5.564,1 kB)
Begegnung 2009 (8.040,5 kB) 
