Festspielhaus St. Pölten

Audiences at Festspielhaus St. Pölten can look forward to a programme bursting with diversity and quality.

Festspielhaus St. Pölten hosts virtuoso classic music heavyweights and the stars of jazz, pop, world music and dance!

World music! 

The multi-Grammy award winner Angélique Kidjo from Benin will be performing for an audience in St. Pöltner on 28 March 2020. The UNICEF ambassador Kidjo will be appearing with the Tonkünstler Orchestra at the festival theatre and unleashing her musical range from afropop to jazz to Latin American beat in expansive, moving soundscapes. Under the name Chilly Gonzales, Canadian Jason Charles Beck gained attention in the 1990s as the ‘President of the Berlin Underground’, with his Solo Piano album, which surprised fans and critics alike. He reimagines rock and pop classic and carefully and imaginatively takes them on a journey to the depths of the complex world of classical music with great understanding of compositional skill; Chilly Gonzales will be appearing at the Festspielhaus St. Pölten on 20 May 2020.  

Classical!

On 18 May 2020, Mozart’s overture ‘The Magic Flute’ KV 620 will start a concert that will cover Viennese classics to Romanticism. Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op 58 for piano and orchestra, interpreted by Chinese-American pianist George Li, will mark the sounds of Romanticism. According to Robert Schuman, this concert is ‘probably Beethoven's greatest masterpiece’. Schuman's own piece Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op 61 is on the programme, a deeply personal work, which Schumann said helped him heal his depression when he studied Bach and wrote this symphony. The Lower Austrian Tonkünstler Orchestra will perform this conducted by Yutaka Sado. 

Dance!

After an amazing appearance with Xenos in 2018, Akram Han returns to the Festspielhaus in May 2020 with his latest piece of choreography: The Austrian premier of ‘Outwitting the Devil’ promises another immersion in old myths and reimagining them in the present day. Da Vinci's ‘The Last Supper’ is the model of this dance piece. Take a trip to the Age of Enlightenment with ‘Un break à Mozart 1.1’: ten hip-hop dancers from Compagnie Accrorap at CCN in La Rochelle and ten musicians from the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées will be interpreting concert extracts from Mozart’s ‘Requiem’ and his overture ‘Don Giovanni’. The authentic music of Mozart will develop into a modern dance choreographed by Kader Attou with a contemporary interpretation of irresistible force.