Prague Spring Festival
Prague, Czech Republic, 12 May – 2 June
Web: festival.cz/en
Smetana’s great cycle Má Vlast (My Country) was dedicated to Prague and by tradition usually announces the start of the city’s springtime festivities. Under its music director Tomáš Hanus, the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera does the honours this year, heralding a delegation of visiting orchestras that includes the Bavarian Radio Symphony and Essen Philharmonic. John Adams teams up with the resident Czech Philharmonic; ‘Prague Offspring’ explores contemporary music by, among others, Georg Friedrich Haas; in the Rudolfinum, Les Talens Lyriques pair Rameau and Royer; and Messiaen absorbs mezzo Magdalena Kožená with pianist Mitsuko Uchida.
Musica Electronica Nova
Wrocław, Poland, 13-19 May
Web: nfm.wroclaw.pl
The 11th edition of Poland’s livewire experimental music festival is examining diverse paths out of the pandemic, and opens with Fluid Mechanics, a piece for ensemble and electronics by Benjamin de la Fuente and Samuel Sighicelli. Lisboa, Valenciennes revisits a trip to Portugal by the festival’s erstwhile artistic director Elżbieta Sikora. And with an eye to the audience of the future, two concerts specially curated for youngsters translate the ever-changing patterns of the kaleidoscope into shimmering sound pictures.
Dresden Festival
Dresden, Germany, 18 May – 18 June
Web: musikfestspiele.com
Last year’s 45th-anniversary festival was all about magic; 2023 takes its theme from Tolstoy, ‘Black and White’ taking a deep dive into the world of contrasts and opposites. Playing on the title, a mini festival-within-the-festival is devoted to the piano, including pianists Emanuel Ax and Hélène Grimaud plus a complete Beethoven symphony cycle in the transcriptions by Liszt. Wagner’s plus a rare outing for Schumann’s , conducted by Kent Nagano, supply the operatic firepower; and highlights include Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 from the Dresden with the period instruments of Jordi Savall’s Le Concert des Nations.
