The world of classical music is experiencing a spiritual revival, as the New York Times has it. The leading indicator is the Salzburg Festival, which added a week this year to accomodate a 10-day Spiritual Overture. The program, which was conceived by the festival’s new artistic director, Alexander Pereira, will be an annual feature, with each year focusing on a different belief system. And it’s not the only program of its kind, the Times reports: Festivals and orchestras around the world have been featuring (and scheduling) more spiritual-themed work during their performance seasons.
Audiences, explains Pereira, want idealism in a transitory world. “It’s as if people were expecting something that finally comes,” he told the Times, “even if they didn’t know what they were expecting.” His sentiment is echoed by Jane Moss, the Lincoln Center’s artistic director, and a self-proclaimed “secular mystic,” who said, “People are looking for larger experiences in a cyberworld.”
Whatever the case, here is some of what to expect from some experience-enlarging festivals and orchestras cited by the Times over the coming months:
Salzburg Festival -- Salzburg, Austria
The festival, which acts as the summer home for the Vienna Philharmonic, has already made the Spiritual Overture a mainstay of the annual festival. Next year the focus will be on Buddhism.
Lucerne Festival -- Lucerne, Switzerland
The Swiss festival, which has featured sacred music during its Easter outings, opens a summer season called Faith on August 8. The program will feature Mozart and Verdi Requiems.
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra -- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Next season the orchestra will expand it Music for the Spirits program, including productions of Mozart and Mahler in the fall, and a dedicated festival in the spring.
Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival -- New York, New York
The personal creation of Moss, the festival will enter its third season this fall. It can (and probably should) be viewed a precursor to this whole movement.
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