Summer Sounds

It can certainly make one feel a bit dizzy to let one’s gaze wander over the summer of 2026 in Grafenegg, which is brimming with music. The first symphony concert following the Midsummer Night's Gala begins, then, with a story in which a fear of heights plays a major role. The technical term for this condition in English is «vertigo»: you’ll recall Alfred Hitchcock’s film of the same name – and also the music, which, unsurprisingly, was composed by Bernard Herrmann. He worked with «Hitch» as a kindred spirit on numerous films and created scores that are every bit as good as the films themselves. And because there were already film music fans in the 1950s and 1960s, Herrmann distilled his scores into orchestral suites for concert use. In the case of «Vertigo», this resulted in a ten-minute, condensed version of the story.

Born and raised in New York City, the American musician Bernard Herrmann also experienced, as a young man, the golden age of Broadway musicals, which brought George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Vincent Youmans and others eternal fame. No wonder, then, that they penned true evergreens such as Gershwin’s «I Got Rhythm» from the musical «Girl Crazy» (1930) and «Someone to Watch Over Me» from the musical «Oh, Kay!» (1926), Porter’s «Night and Day» from the musical «Gay Divorce» (1932) and «What Is This Thing Called Love» from the musical «Wake Up and Dream» (1929), as well as Youmans’ «Tea for Two» from the musical «No, No, Nanette» (1924). These songs quickly took on a life of their own, became standards in the «Great American Songbook» collection and became deeply ingrained in the memories of generations. The composer and musician Patrick Zimmerli, who himself has lived and worked in Paris, has reworked the songs for pianist Yaron Herman into new, tailor-made piano-and-orchestra arrangements, which are in the best of hands with the Tonkunstler Orchestra and its principal conductor Fabien Gabel.

Another great film music composer also enjoyed arranging works by his contemporaries, and so Richard Rodney Bennett transformed Kurt Weill’s 1941 Broadway hit «Lady in the Dark» into a colourful and dazzling symphonic suite. George Gershwin followed in the footsteps of Richard Strauss with his «Tone Poem» (as he explicitly called it), «An American in Paris» – with its entirely unique, entertaining, colourful and jazzy soundscape.

Spain is not only a source of inspiration and an ideal place to live for the great singer Elīna Garanča, who will be performing as a guest at Grafenegg on 4 July as part of the Summer Sounds; Fabián Panisello, who was born in Argentina, has also called Spain his home for many years. The renowned composer, conductor and university professor delighted audiences and musicians in Grafenegg as Composer in Residence in the summer of 2025. On 11 July 2026, Panisello will conduct the Tonkunstler Orchestra in a «Fiesta Española», a Spanish festival that, with the orchestral piece «Sensemayá» by the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas, delves just as deeply into the history of Mesoamerica, as the inspiration for it stems from a poem by the Cuban author Nicolás Guillén. «Sensemayá» tells of a ritual at the end of which a dangerous snake is slain by a sorcerer: this snake had stolen the soul of a princess named Lucero. And only when a sorcerer kills the terrible reptile does the soul return to the princess’s body. All of this is also reflected in the music that Revueltas has adapted in various versions, including for small orchestra, which opens this «Spanish» journey – in the broadest sense – on that summer evening in July. The composer Joaquín Rodrigues struck a chord in the heart of Spain with his «Concierto de Aranjuez». Rodrigo and his wife Victoria loved to spend the early, perhaps happiest days of their young marriage in the gardens of the Palace of Aranjuez, the inspiration for the most famous guitar concerto in the history of music: The Spanish guitarist Pablo Sáinz-Villegas is today regarded as one of the ideal interpreters; he has already performed the concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic and Kirill Petrenko – and also in Grafenegg a few years ago. The highlight of the evening will be the premiere of a new work by Fabián Panisello, whose orchestral piece «Mariposas» had its world premiere in Grafenegg as recently as 2025. Finally, the Spanish grand seigneur among composers: Manuel de Falla. He transformed Spanish folklore in an inimitable way into magnificent orchestral splendour. The suites from the ballet «El sombrero de tres picos» (The Three-Cornered Hat) exude Iberian poetry at every moment. 

In 2026, participants at the Grafenegg Academy can look forward to an extraordinary project: working alongside one of today’s most significant composers, they will prepare the world premiere of a new work. In addition, through discussions, excursions and lectures with experts from various fields, they will have the opportunity to reflect on the significance of art and its place in society.

The starting point is the personal story of Mollena Lee Williams-Haas: in an autobiographical text, the actress, author, performer and activist describes her arduous journey from self-destructive alcohol addiction to sobriety. Her inner demon appears in it in personified form as a hyena. Her husband, Georg Friedrich Haas, Composer in Residence at Grafenegg in 2022, wrote the gripping music for this narrative. In 2016, a deeply impressed Wien Modern audience witnessed the world premiere of «Hyena». The recording of this concert forms the first part of a day centred on the multi-layered soundscapes of Georg Friedrich Haas.

Finally, two works commissioned for Grafenegg will receive their world premieres: «Hyena II» for narrator and orchestra, narrated by the author and performed by the Grafenegg Academy Orchestra under the baton of Ilan Volkov; and, as the concluding third part, «Hyena III», for narrator and four pianos tuned to microtonal intervals.

The musicians explore the theme of self-destruction and reinvention, which underlies the works, through an interdisciplinary supporting programme. This also includes a public panel discussion with participants from various disciplines, moderated by Axel Brüggemann, who has been brought in as dramaturg for the Academy. It rounds off a moving day of concerts, with the focus on the artistic processing of biographical experiences.

Back in the Spanish-speaking world, where Sarah Willis, a horn player with the Berlin Philharmonic, was due to give a masterclass on the French horn in Cuba. «Really?» thought the perplexed top musician as she accepted this unusual assignment a few years ago without great expectations, but with plenty of curiosity. And she was thrilled! What she experienced in the famous Caribbean island nation quickly became a labour of love: «The Mozart statue in Havana’s Old Town suddenly made sense. I decided to raise awareness of the wonderful classical music scene. That’s how the ‹Mozart y Mambo› project came about.» It’s «a bit crazy», she admits, but «the energy and passion of the musicians is so inspiring» that even Mozart himself is undoubtedly dancing along in the heavenly ballroom to his music, garnished with salsa and mambo rhythms. Tune after tune, from «El Bodeguero», a hit by the Cuban flutist, arranger and composer Richard Egües (1923–2006), «Chan Chan» by the famous Cuban musician Compay Segundo (1907–2003), known from the film «Buena Vista Social Club», or the global hit «El Manisero» by the pianist, composer and conductor Moisés Simons (1889–1945) reflect part of Cuba’s rich musical history. Edgar Olivero’s lively pieces, inspired by Mozart’s works, demonstrate a creative approach to the Viennese classic, which is fearlessly infused with rumba and mambo rhythms and revitalised with wit and virtuosity. 

Following «Mozart y Mambo», the European Union Youth Orchestra will return to the stage in Grafenegg on 1 August 2026. Whilst music itself is being reimagined in Cuba, the EUYO’s programme focuses on musical traditions: on how well-known pieces sound in the hands of young musicians, how traditions can be passed on to the next generation – and how that generation engages with them. Every interpretation differs from the one before and the one after, even if the music itself has remained unchanged for many decades. Yet it is only outstanding musicians who can truly bring the notes written in the scores to life.

Johannes Brahms’ Violin Concerto has shone for almost 150 years as a radiant sun in the firmament of the musical heavens: full of power and impulsive surges, and deeply life-affirming – a masterpiece tailor-made for the Spanish violinist María Dueñas. Naturally, the young virtuoso’s performance also draws on the history of interpretation to date, which is automatically taken into account, whether by the performer or the audience.

Throughout his life, Sergei Rachmaninoff, as an outstanding performer in his own right, helped to make his music known whilst also playing an active part in ensuring the continued legacy of his works. He conducted the premiere of his Second Symphony in St Petersburg in 1908, at a time when, as a touring virtuoso, he was also a frequent guest throughout the rest of Europe, including in Dresden in 1906–07, where much of the Second Symphony was composed. When he left Russia in 1917 in the wake of the October Revolution, he did not know that it would be for good. Listening to his works today, the vast majority of which were composed before 1917, one can almost hear the homesickness that often plagued him later in life. Elim Chan, one of the most impressive conductors of her generation, leads the European Union Youth Orchestra with sonic precision and narrative power through this programme of light and shadow.

Speaking of great traditions: to round off the Summer Sounds festival, the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic orchestras will be taking a journey through music history. Whenever they perform together, sparks are sure to fly! As Philharmonix, these seven world-class musicians will be playing pieces that are not usually found on their orchestras’ concert programmes. Through brilliant new arrangements, they bring out fresh, original facets of hits from a wide range of genres. The sound aesthetics and musical traditions of their orchestras also shape the arrangements. Vienna’s Thilo Fechner (viola), Daniel Ottensamer (clarinet) and Ödön Rácz (double bass), along with Berlin’s Stephan Koncz (cello) and Noah Bendix-Balgley (violin), always strike the right note alongside Christoph Traxler (piano) and the arranging genius Sebastian Gürtler (violin). With arrangements ranging from folk songs to major orchestral works such as Ravel’s «La Valse», they bring the 2026 Summer Sounds to a spectacular close.