14.08.2020 21:19
(Akt. 14.08.2020 21:20)
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The opening concert of the Grafenegg Festival was canceled on Friday evening after 30 minutes due to a thunderstorm. The musicians of the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria fled from the stage of the cloud tower from the heavy rain. Since there is no indoor alternative this year due to the corona, the event could not be continued.
While the first announcement had still been that the concert would be interrupted and the audience should remain in their seats, the cancellation came shortly afterwards over the loudspeaker: The storm front was intensifying and the concert had to be stopped.
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Everything had started promisingly. The visitors were first led into waiting areas and asked from there to their seats. Artistic director Rudolf Buchbinder welcomed the guests and said that courage was needed in these times and that “decision-makers who provided the right framework conditions” were needed. Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner (ÖVP) was pleased that the festival could also take place in this time of crisis.
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When Konstantia Gourzi, composer in residence and conductor, came to the podium, the first drops fell. Ludwig van Beethoven’s overture to the ballet “The Creatures of Prometheus” was drowned out by the rustling of the rain pelerines, and the premiere of Gourzi’s commissioned work “Ypsilon” did not take place at all, let alone Beethoven’s Triple Concerto. According to the motto “Save yourself, if you can”, the audience headed for the parking lots in the downpour.
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Now the organizers are hoping for better conditions for the other concerts on the opening weekend: on Saturday again with the Tonkünstler Orchestra, on Sunday with Jonas Kaufmann and Schubert’s song cycle “Die Schöne Müllerin”.
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