Sunday Combination

MUSIC WITHOUT BORDERS
15.30 pm · Rudolf Buchbinder Hall

Josef Špaček, former concertmaster of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Austrian cellist Julia Hagen, and pianist Denis Kozhukhin, a Russian-born musician now based in Berlin: these three stars prove that music knows no borders. The exuberant joy of music-making in Antonín Dvořák’s «Dumky Trio» blends perfectly with the wordless fairy-tale scenes of Leoš Janáček’s «Pohádka», and with the elegy that Dvořák’s son-in-law Josef Suk wrote in memory of the Bohemian writer Julius Zeyer. An afternoon spent among friendly neighbours – with music as their shared home.

RUSALKA II
19.30 pm · Wolkenturm

The second performance of one of the most beautiful operas in the history of music brings the first festival weekend and its focus on «Home / Strangers / Neighbors» to a close. Antonín Dvořák’s lyrical fairy tale «Rusalka» tells the story of a water nymph who falls for the charms of a young prince, is transformed by a witch into a human woman (albeit a mute one), leaves her homeland, and finds herself unable to fit in at her lover’s court. Broken by her failure, she returns to her mythical world as a will-o’-the-wisp.

GREETINGS FROM NÎMES
15.30 pm · Rudolf Buchbinder Hall

In 2026, Alexandre Kantorow made his Grafenegg Festival debut with a spectacular solo recital. In 2027, he returns to the Rudolf Buchbinder Hall, but not alone. As a gift from the «Rencontres musicales de Nîmes», which he has directed artistically since 2022 together with violinist Liya Petrova and cellist Aurélien Pascal, he will bring a group of fellow musicians and friends to Grafenegg: a real treat for lovers of exquisite chamber music.

DO YOU LOVE BRAHMS?
19.30 pm · Wolkenturm

Two masterpieces, performed by a dream team: the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Antonio Pappano. Clara Schumann once raved about the First Symphony by her beloved friend Johannes Brahms: «Everything is so interestingly interwoven, and yet as spirited as a first outpouring! » After a sombre, fateful opening and dramatic conflicts, the sun finally breaks through in the finale in C major – with a heavenly horn theme. In the Third Symphony, densely packed and at times explosive, the heroic and the lyrical intertwine in the tightest of spaces.

RISING STAR
15.30 pm · Rudolf Buchbinder Hall

The stunning pianist Eva Gevorgyan takes to the stage in Grafenegg with a programme that combines the fantastical works of Scriabin and Chopin with virtuosic showpieces: Sofia Gubaidulina’s Chaconne and excerpts from Mikhail Pletnev’s transcription of Tchaikovsky’s «Sleeping Beauty» suite. In June 2026, Rudolf Buchbinder presented her with the Prix Serdang in Switzerland – a «moment I will always carry in my heart», said the young musician happily.

LEGENDS
19.15 pm · Wolkenturm

Two legends of the music world: Martha Argerich and Daniel Barenboim share a close, lifelong friendship, both personally and artistically. They are both citizens of the world, and their music-making builds bridges and brings together the seemingly irreconcilable, as Daniel Barenboim has demonstrated for decades with his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. They are bringing to Grafenegg Tchaikovsky's great «Fate Symphony» and Sergei Prokofiev's virtuosic Piano Concerto No. 3, which Martha Argerich has interpreted with unrivalled mastery throughout her career.

REICH / RICHTER · DIFFERENT TRAINS
15.30 pm · Rudolf Buchbinder Hall

To conclude Steve Reich's residency, two major works: «Reich / Richter», which sets Reich's music to the paintings of Gerhard Richter, brought to life by video artist Corinna Belz. As a child in the early 1940s, Reich travelled back and forth by train between his father and mother, from Los Angeles to New York and back again. At the same time in Europe, there was no return for millions of people who were transported in freight trains to the extermination camps. In «Different Trains», Reich transformed the incomprehensible into sound in a poetic and moving way.

THE VALKYRIE · FESTIVAL-FINALE
19.00 pm · Wolkenturm

Andreas Schager is the Wagnerian tenor of our time. The world-renowned singer from Lower Austria, as Siegmund, joins Vida Miknevičiūtė as Sieglinde and Mika Kares as Hunding to bring Wagnerian storms and passions to the Wolkenturm stage in a Bayreuth-honed ensemble. The evening opens with the Tonkunstler Orchestra under chief conductor Fabien Gabel, performing the equally stormy «little» G-minor Symphony by the 17-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.