The Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival 2023 has started. The 38th edition of the summer festival opened in Lübeck on Saturday with a performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s oratorio “Elias”. Internationally renowned vocal soloists and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra under its chief conductor delighted the audience in the Lübeck Music and Congress Hall, which was almost sold out. Michael Volle stepped in at short notice for the sick singer Florian Boesch. For this he received special applause.

The concert will be repeated on Sunday with the same program and the same cast – and according to the information, will be broadcast live on NDR Kultur from 8:03 p.m. and on 3sat from 8:15 p.m.

The anticipation of the entire festival team is huge, said director Christian Kuhnt before the start. After two difficult summers with various corona restrictions, you can finally get started again, he said.

At the 38th Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, a total of 198 concerts in Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Lower Saxony and southern Denmark are on the program until August 27th. 90 of them focus on the music metropolis of London. The festival’s portrait artist is violinist Daniel Hope. He will give 50 concerts during the festival.

Festival program