A feast for music lovers: The highlights of the Easter Festival programme from 12.04 to 21.04.2025 in Salzburg
“Wounds and miracles”
The Easter Festival in Salzburg is one of the most outstanding events for music lovers from all over the world.
This festival presents a varied programme of concerts and opera performances performed by outstanding artists and orchestras of international standing. The repertoire of the Salzburg Easter Festival is always a fascinating combination of classical masterpieces and modern compositions that captivate and delight audiences in equal measure.
Mahler Chamber Orchestra © Molinavisuals
The highlights of the Easter Festival 2025
The Salzburg Easter Festival 2025 under the motto “WOUNDS AND MIRACLES” offers a diverse program with four conductors and three orchestras. The focus is on a new production of Modest Mussorgsky’s “Khovanshchina”, staged by Simon McBurney, with Esa-Pekka Salonen, who conducts a staged opera for the first time in six years. Salonen also conducts two concerts with music by Sibelius, Mahler and himself. In addition, there will be three concerts with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Mozarteum Orchestra under the direction of Gianandrea Noseda, Maxim Emelyanychev and Tabita Berglund. Artistic Director Nikolaus Bachler emphasizes that the festival deals with the current social wounds, but at the same time also conveys hope for miracles and a better future.
LATE NIGHT TANGO
Since the beginning of the 20th century, a unique tango variant has developed in Finland, which to this day has a significant emotional resonance for the population and is often considered a symbol of the country’s freedom and independence. Turku-born bassist Matti Salminen will express the melancholic depth of these compositions in a night concert together with musicians from the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
DANCE AND ELECTRO AT THE SALZBURG EASTER FESTIVAL 2025
After two extremely successful years, Artistic Director Nikolaus Bachler will continue to lead the newly established areas of dance and electro in 2025 in 2025. For the first time, the French-Albanian choreographer Angelin Preljocaj and his company will be guests in Salzburg and present his latest creation »Requiem(s)«. On Maundy Thursday, the two electronic artists Alma and Cambis will create a night full of beats and Mussorgsky with their program “Wounds & Wonders”.
ELECTRO: »WOUNDS & WONDERS«
After two successful electro evenings in the classic atmosphere of the Felsenreitschule, the event will take place in 2025 in a new, equally fascinating location – the Caverns 1595. These historic premises in the heart of Salzburg, near the Mönchsberg lift, look back on an archiepiscopal history and have been in existence since 1595.
Two outstanding artists will enrich the event: DJ Alma, who discovered her passion for electronic music in her youth and now plays in the most prestigious clubs and festivals from Berlin to Zurich to Thailand. At her side will be DJ and music producer Cambis, who has been a fixture in the Munich DJ scene for 20 years. Together they will create a unique night between electro and Mussorgsky, techno and soprano, as well as wounds and miracles. They are supported by the impressive vocals of the Persian singer Sogoli Livani.
In addition to these main programs, there are also numerous other concerts and performances that will delight the audience. Another highlight is the traditional Easter concert.
The traditional Easter concert
CHOIR CONCERT I: MAHLER
Conductor ESA-PEKKA SALONEN, Soprano NADINE SIERRA, Alto JASMIN WHITE,
BAVARIAN RADIO CHOIR, FINNISH RADIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
For the first of two choral concerts, Esa-Pekka Salonen is programming Gustav Mahler’s 2nd Symphony, the so-called Resurrection Symphony. “You embark on a unique musical journey – it begins in a dark place and leads through numerous wrong turns to the finale, in which Mahler gives us the key to understanding why we are on this planet,” says the conductor.
Overall, the program of the Easter Festival in Salzburg is an impressive offer for music lovers. The city itself, with its impressive architecture and beautiful Alpine panorama, offers a unique atmosphere that makes the festival an unforgettable experience.
