Thrill to the Sounds of the Summer’s Biggest Classical Music Festivals on STAGE+

It’s the perfect time to start exploring STAGE+ as it travels to three of Europe’s biggest classical summer festivals: Bayreuth, Salzburg and Verbier.

Right now, anyone curious about classical music or keen to try out STAGE+ without committing to a longer-term subscription can take advantage of our Special Summer Offer and pay just 1€ for two months of unlimited access to the platform, including all livestreams. This offer is valid until 16 August 2024. Full details are available here.

We’re sure the fantastic festival events taking place this summer will tempt listeners to find out more about STAGE+. Read on to find out more about upcoming highlights and some of the many archive treasures available.

Bayreuth Festival

Founded in 1876 by composer Richard Wagner, the Bayreuth Festival will soon be celebrating its 150th anniversary. Every summer Wagner’s ten “mature” operas are performed over the course of a month in the Festspielhaus designed by the composer himself. Wagner fans continue to flock to Bavaria year after year, but as tickets are like gold dust, why not watch from the comfort of your own home instead!

This year STAGE+ livestreamed the opening night of Thorleifur Örn Arnarsson’s new production of Tristan und Isolde on 25 July. There were re-runs the following day, and the film has now been added to the Bayreuth video-on-demand (VOD) collection. Conducted by Semyon Bychkov, the opera’s stellar cast is headed by Andreas Schager and Camilla Nylund in the title roles.

Thanks to the close partnership between Deutsche Grammophon and the Festival, STAGE+ now hosts the most comprehensive VOD archive of Bayreuth productions. This includes more than 30 full-length stagings, among them Barrie Kosky’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (2017), Tobias Kratzer’s Tannhäuser (2019), Dmitri Tcherniakov’s Der fliegende Holländer (2021), Jay Scheib’s Parsifal and the most recent Bayreuth Ring cycles – those directed by Frank Castorf (exclusively available on STAGE+) and Valentin Schwarz – as well as Patrice Chéreau’s legendary “Centenary Ring” cycle (conducted by Pierre Boulez). Also on offer are documentaries, behind-the-scenes interviews and a stunning selection of audio albums.  Discover the full Bayreuth archive here.

Watch the full opera here.

Salzburg Festival

Salzburg has a centuries-old association with classical music, not least as the birthplace of Mozart, whose operas remain a focus of its Festival. Established in 1920 to encompass both music and drama, the Festival gained particular renown in the mid−20th century – the Herbert von Karajan era. Since then it has continued to expand and now runs for five weeks each summer.

STAGE+ will be streaming three concerts from this year’s Salzburg Festival, all featuring the masterful playing of the Wiener Philharmoniker. We begin on 11 August with Mahler’s valedictory Symphony No. 9, conducted by Andris Nelsons. On 23 August, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla conducts a first-rate international cast in Krzysztof Warlikowski’s new production of Mieczysław Weinberg’s final opera, The Idiot, its libretto based on the classic novel by Dostoevsky. Another day, another new opera production – on 24 August, tenor Benjamin Bernheim stars in the title role of Les Contes d’Hoffmann, directed by Mariame Clément and conducted by Offenbach specialist Marc Minkowski.

STAGE+ is also home to a wide-ranging Salzburg archive, featuring audio and video recordings of everything from solo recitals to orchestral concerts and operas. Recent additions to the Salzburg collection include Andris Nelsons’ interpretation of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony from the 2022 Festival and a 2015 Tchaikovsky and Brahms programme from Anne-Sophie Mutter and Riccardo Muti,

Watch the full concert here.

Verbier Festival

Although the Verbier Festival is considerably younger than its sister festivals in Bayreuth and Salzburg, it too has achieved global renown since it was founded in the heart of the Swiss Alps 30 years ago. Its aim is to enable exchanges between great masters and young artists from all over the world, thereby encouraging the development of the next generation of classical musicians.

STAGE+ will be livestreaming a recital of French and Polish music for violin and piano given by Bomsori and Julien Quentin on 29 July. Three other concerts from the current Festival are already available to view. Sir Simon Rattle conducts the Verbier Festival Orchestra in this year’s opening concert, a performance of Mahler’s Third Symphony, with mezzo-soprano soloist Magdalena Kožená. And there are solo piano recitals from the winner of the 2022 Van Cliburn Competition, Yunchan Lim (works by Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky), and from recent DG signing Nobuyuki Tsujii (music by Bach, Liszt, Ravel and Kapustin).

Among the many audio and audiovisual gems available in the STAGE+ Verbier archive, meanwhile, is this wonderful Mischa Maisky in Verbier audio release, from which the track Maisky performs here is taken:

Listen to the full album here.

Deutsche Grammophon’s groundbreaking streaming service STAGE+ presents over 50 livestreams each year direct from the world’s most prestigious festivals, concert halls and opera houses. It also offers exclusive premieres, interviews, documentaries and music videos featuring DG artists such as Lang Lang, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Víkingur Ólafsson, Hilary Hahn, Daniel Hope, Andris Nelsons and many more. New audio and video releases are regularly added to the platform, which also hosts an extensive archive of historic musical treasures. Subscribers can enjoy STAGE+ in the best sound and picture quality possible on all compatible devices – TV, computer, smartphone or tablet.

July 2024