ERÖFFNUNGSKONZERT

Orchestra of the Tiroler Festspiele Erl
Musikalische Leitung: Asher Fisch

„Vom Bade kehrt der König heim; hoch steht die Sonne“, heißt es in „Parsifal“. Ein schattiges Plätzchen wäre gut. Hinsetzen, durchatmen, abkühlen. Wenn Sie sich im Sommer nicht nur nach Schatten sehnen, sondern auch nach Musik dürsten, sind Sie in Erl richtig! In Wagners „Parsifal“-Vorspiel und Debussys „La mèr“ ist das Sonnenlicht auf ein (mehr als) erträgliches Maß heruntergedimmt, der Puls wird ruhiger. Aber unter der streicherzarten, ruhenden Oberfläche, gerät die Musik in Bewegung – genauso wie in Pfitzners Vorspielen zu seiner Oper „Palestrina“. In diesem Künstlerdrama erzählt Pfitzner von der Rettung der abendländischen Musik durch den Renaissance-Komponisten Pierluigi da Palestrina – oder ist es schließlich Pfitzner selbst, der hier das Erbe der Romantik ins 20. Jahrhundert „hinüberrettet“?

Hans Pfitzner
Drei Vorspiele zu „Palestrina“
Richard Wagner
Parsifal - Vorspiel zum 1. Aufzug
Claude Debussy
La mer

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Team

Orchestra of the Tiroler Festspiele Erl

The music springs from the enthusiasm of a motivated and exceptionally well-prepared ensemble that has grown together over the years. The Tyrolean Festival Erl Orchestra was first formed in the summer of 1999—and today, musicians from 20 nations play together. Already in its first year, the ensemble achieved unprecedented success, which would go on to bring international recognition to the Tyrolean Festival Erl. Top young talents, musicians from major international orchestras, chamber music specialists, and lecturers come together annually in summer and winter—and since 2017, also in fall and spring—as part of the Tyrolean Festival Erl. Under the direction of festival founder Gustav Kuhn, the orchestra garnered rave reviews from international critics and cemented its reputation as one of the world’s finest Wagner orchestras. With the start of Jonas Kaufmann’s tenure as artistic director in September 2024, Asher Fisch—a conductor in high demand internationally in both opera and concert settings—has taken over the helm of the orchestra.

In addition to Richard Wagner’s ten major music dramas and operas by Strauss, Mozart, Beethoven, Verdi, and Rossini, the orchestra’s repertoire includes Beethoven’s symphonies and many other key works from the concert repertoire spanning the Baroque and Romantic periods, as well as contemporary works and world premieres.

Asher Fisch Musikalische Leitung

Asher Fisch is Chief Conductor of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and has been Music Director of the Tiroler Festspiele in Erl since the beginning of the 2024/25 season. He is internationally recognized as one of the leading conductors and has an extensive repertoire that covers both opera and concert areas. He began his career as an assistant to Daniel Barenboim and as a conductor at the Berlin State Opera. Since then, he has conducted at major European opera houses, including Vienna, Milan, Munich, Paris and Madrid. As an acknowledged Wagner specialist, Fisch has recorded two complete "Ring" cycles as well as "Tristan und Isolde". In addition, he has intensively studied the Italian repertoire and recently released a Puccini album together with tenor Jonas Kaufmann, the new Artistic Director of the Tiroler Festspiele Erl.

As a concert conductor, Asher Fisch has led renowned US American and European orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Munich Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de France and the London Symphony Orchestra. Asher Fisch is also active as a pianist and can be experienced in piano concerts, with chamber music and as a song accompanist.