Change and Transformation at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival

The 68^th edition of the Gstaad Menuhin Festival and Academy will take place next year from 12 July to 31 August 2024, focusing on the theme ‘Change – Transformation’. The Alpine town of Gstaad in the Bernese Oberland, with its mountains, lakes, streams, idyllic walks, picturesque villages and peaceful atmosphere adds to the glory of music performed at some 60 concerts. The great violinist and humanist Yehudi Menuhin, relaxing with his family in Gstaad, first founded the Festival in 1957 – together with his close musical friends, pianist and composer Benjamin Britten, tenor Peter Pears, and cellist Maurice Gendron in the historic 15^th century St Maurice Church (Mauritiuskirche) in the adjoining village of Saanen.

Since then, the Festival has expanded enormously, while still maintaining and developing the artistic and humanistic visions of Menuhin, and featuring great international artists. For example the 2024 programme, released today, is set to include Elgar, Mahler and Holst performed by Antonio Pappano and the LSO with Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang, cellist Sol Gabetta following in the footsteps of Lisa Cristiani, Mark Elder leading Gstaad Festival Orchestra and Jonas Kaufmann in a performance of Tristan und Isolde, virtuoso piano recitals by Yuja Wang and András Schiff – and Julia Fischer as artist-in-residence with Schumann, Beethoven and Strauss. In parallel there are generous opportunities for aspiring young musicians – local and international, with concerts in the charming Gstaad ‘Kapelle’.

The Festival combines the chamber music and orchestral/operatic classics with new and challenging compositions, as well as ‘popular’ inspirations. The chamber music concerts are hosted by the Saanen church and historic churches in the surrounding villages of Lauenen, Zweisimmen, Rougement, Château d’Œx, Gsteig, Boltigen, while the larger orchestral/operatic (semi-staged) concerts take place in the Gstaad ‘Festival Tent’, seating some 2,000 listeners. In parallel the Gstaad Academy continues to give guidance and experience to young musicians, with masterclasses by violinist Ana Chumachenco, violist Ettore Causa, cellist Ivan Monighetti and early music expert Maurice Steger. Conductors will be mentored by Jaap van Zweden.

The artistic director Christoph Müller, a former cellist with the Basel Chamber Orchestra, has over the years, developed fresh themes and inspirations for the succeeding festivals –  recent years have followed the musical inspirations of ‘The Alps’, ‘Paris’, ‘London’ and ‘Vienna’. In 2023, taking note of the fast moving environmental and humanistic world in which we now live, he launched a three-year series entitled ‘Change’, focusing on ‘Humility’ in 2023, ‘Transformation’ in 2024 and ‘Migration’ in 2025. He will stand down as artistic director after the conclusion of the ‘Change’ series in 2025, having completed 24 inspirational years leading the Festival.

Artistic director Christoph Müller will stand down as artistic director after the conclusion of his ‘Change’ series in 2025, after 24 years leading the Festival (Image courtesy of Gstaad Menuhin Festival)

The Festival eagerly enters the second year of its three-year programme cycle with ‘Transformation’ in 2024. ‘Trans’ is a Latin preposition signifying transition from one place or state to another. In recognition of this the 2024 Gstaad Menuhin Festival has grouped its transformation concerts into three thematic areas; transcendence, transmission, and trans-classics.

With the first group of concerts we recognise the transcendental quality and metaphysical influence of musical moments, such as in Schubert’s songs/mass, Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, Mahler’s ‘Titan’ Symphony, Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht, Strauss’s Metamorphosen or Holst’s The Planets.

The concept of transmission explores the evolution of values, cultures and traditions across the generations, and the transfer of experiences from one generation to another. For many years the Festival has been practising this with its academies, in the spirit of its founder Yehudi Menuhin. We think of Mozart, who dedicated his string quartets to Haydn, thereby paying tribute to his ‘idol’, and many similar examples, such as the Festival portrait of the almost forgotten 19^th century cellist Lisa Cristiana, or premieres of compositions by Emilie Mayer and Fanny Mendelssohn/Hensel. This theme allows us to explore and challenge the preservation and dissemination of musical values in the social environment of today’s world.

Trans-classics looks at the possible changes in the realms of performance and concert formats. We have seen the transformations from the baroque to the classical eras. Where will we be in say 10 years’ time, as traditions, dress codes, expectations evolve? Musicians are already recognising this, blending styles and genres – for example Dowland, Purcell and Bob Dylan in the same concert, Bach and Vivaldi intertwined with a Beatles classic, a Shostakovich quartet followed by jazz/pop improvisation.

The 2024 festival will feature piano recitals by Yuja Wang (pictured) and András Schiff (Image courtesy of Gstaad Menuhin Festival)

The Festival series ‘Music for the Planet’, curated by Patricia Koptchinskaja, continues the theme of transformation in the context of Venice, a city of longing and dreams, with musical glories but also haunting sadness and death. The cellist Anastasia Kobekina meditates on the imagery of the city, now challenged by rising sea levels. Kopatchinskaja’s ‘Time and Eternity’ explores the vision of hope, while threatened with the horrors of catastrophic warfare. Frank Martin in his Polyptyque, composed in 1973 for Yehudi Menuhin, was moved by the Passion of Christ and God’s empathy with the sufferings of the world – reflecting hope at times of uncertainty, including today’s challenges such as climate change and global upheavals.

The Gstaad Menuhin Festival is committed to a more resource efficient and sustainable management, thereby positioning itself in the right place for the environmental future. With this project, named ‘Mission Menuhin’, led by chief executive Lukas Wittemann, and supported by the Festival Board under president Aldo Kropf, the Festival is making its responsible contribution to current environmental challenges. In particular the emphasis is on reducing CO2 emissions from the operation of the Festival and increasing audience awareness of the issues.

The complete 2024 programme and list of artists is now available on the Gstaad Menuhin Festival website. Bookings for concerts in the ‘Festival Tent’ can be made online, and for concerts in the other locations from 1^st February 2024.

Now a Gstaad Menuhin Festival international representative, Desmond Cecil was a Swiss professional violinist before becoming a British diplomat in embassies around the world. He does much pro bono work with arts organisations around Europe and his memoir The Wandering Civil Servant of Stradivarius was published by Quartet Books in 2021, with all royalties donated to charities helping young musicians.