Festival Sounds from Jerusalem

Program highlights

The focus of this year’s festival is the music of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Viennese Classicism. As well as compositions by the three most important figures of that era, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven, visitors will also be able to listen to works by Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, and Gustav Mahler. Contrasting accents come from pieces by composers of the more recent past and the present day, such as Alfred Schnittke and Matthias Pintscher.

A total of thirty-two musicians will appear during the six days of the festival, among them the rising Israeli star Lahav Shani, just twenty-nine years old, who will soon succeed Zubin Mehta as music director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. On the second day of the festival, Elena Bashkirova and her husband Daniel Barenboim will play Franz Schubert’s piano piece Fantasia in F Minor for 4 Hands. As every year, the festival culminates with Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s string octet, this year featuring Liza Ferschtman as first violin. "There is no other piece that exudes such good humor and helps us look to the future with so much optimism," says Elena Bashkirova.

A bridge to Jerusalem

Accompanying the current exhibition, Welcome to Jerusalem, the festival will often spotlight the sacred status of Jerusalem and biblical themes. The first day of the festival focuses on the city of Jerusalem. Elena Bashkirova and Alexander Knyazev on piano open the festival with Georg Friedrich Handel’s Arrival of the Queen of Sheba. The third day is dedicated to Sergei Prokofiev’s Overture on Hebrew Themes, and the program for the festival’s last day includes Matthias Pintscher’s Uriel for cello and piano (2011).

During the six-day festival, concert-goers can present their intonations ticket at the museum ticket desk and receive a 25 percent discount on admission to the exhibition Welcome to Jerusalem. The exhibition offers insights into the city where, twenty years ago, Elena Bashkirova inaugurated her Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival.

From Jerusalem to Berlin

The Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival was founded by Elena Bashkirova in 1998, and is among Jerusalem’s most important cultural events. Bringing together top international musicians, it facilitates cultural and musical encounters in a city that is increasingly dominated by religion. The concert series has visited the Jewish Museum Berlin every year since 2012 with the title intonations – The Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival. In 2019, intonations will take place for the eighth time in the museum’s Glass Courtyard on 6–11 April.

The festival is supported by Evonik Industries.

The current program can be found at www.jmberlin.de/en/intonations (schedule subject to change).

To arrange an interview with the festival director Elena Bashkirova or selected musicians, please contact presse@jmberlin.de.

Media partners

• rbb Fernsehen
• rbb Kulturradio
• tip Berlin
• TheaterGemeinde Berlin e.V.

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