The Gewandhausorchester will reopen for June and July for their annual summer festival, beginning on June 7 and running on the weekends until July 12. The orchestra has announced that there will be 19 one-hour concert programs that will follow Germany’s new regulations of only 80 audience members. Each concert will be performed twice so as many people can see the performances. 

Andris Nelsons will conduct the final two concerts of the festival, leading the Winds of the Gewandhausorchester on July 11 in a program of Strauss’ Serenade in E flat major, a work dedicated to his first composition teacher which pays tribute to his horn-playing father, and Mozart’s sublime Serenade in B flat major KV 361 (“Gran Partita”).

On July 12, Nelsons leads the Strings of the Gewandhausorchester in Beethoven’s late and much-lauded Grosse Fuge in B flat major op. 133 (arrangement for string orchestra by Felix Weingartner), and Bartók’s Divertimento for string orchestra Sz 113, one of the last works he wrote before leaving Europe for exile in the US.

Learn more about the Gewandhausorchester’s Summer Festival here.

Photo credit: Robert Torres