37th Musikfest off to a successful start!

On Saturday evening, the 37th Musikfest Bremen kicked off with the 25th Edition of its traditional opening event, »Eine große Nachtmusik« (A Grand Night of Music). The festival got underway with 18 concerts at nine different venues around Bremen's market square. Over 8,000 tickets were sold for the concerts, which ranged from sumptuous orchestral sounds to sensual Baroque music and virtuoso Romantic chamber music, all the way to sizzling Latin and jazz rhythms.

Whether it was Fazıl Say and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony conducted by Alain Altinoglu at the Glocke, the Roberto Fonseca Group in the courtyard of the state Court, the Ensemble Matheus and the Chœur de l’Académie Haendel Hendrix under the baton of Jean-Christophe Spinosi at St. Petri Cathedral, the Boston Early Music Festival Vocal & Chamber Ensembles at Liebfrauenkirche, or Vsevolod Zavidov at Haus Schütting — the audience was thrilled by the moving live performances and strolled between the venues, which were atmospherically illuminated by Austrian lighting designer Christian Weißkircher, during the breaks between the concerts.

After Bremen Zwei and Deutschlandfunk Kultur already covered the opening night live, the ARD Radiofestival will broadcast a compilation of this musical journey through different eras and cultures on Tuesday, September 8, starting at 8:03 p.m., featuring excerpts from the concerts at the Glocke, City Hall, Liebfrauenkirche, and the courtyard of the Forum am Domshof. The concerts at 8:30 pm at St. Petri Cathedral and at 10:00 pm at the Glocke were also recorded for Arte Concert and will be available in the coming days in the media library at www.arte.tv.