The international recorder festival in picturesque Bad Kissingen is a unique opportunity for recorder enthusiasts, musicians and music lovers from all over the world to meet and take part in concerts, lectures and a large music exhibition. Under the direction of the renowned recorder virtuoso Maurice Steger, visitors can expect a varied programme ranging from the music of the Baroque Middle Ages to contemporary compositions. The recorder festival is not only an excellent opportunity to find new musical inspiration and listen to first-class concerts, but also to exchange ideas with like-minded people and spend a wonderful time in one of the most beautiful regions of Germany.
Blockflötenfesttage Bad Kissingen
18. – 21. May 2023
Regentenbau
Ludwigstraße 2
97688 Bad Kissingen
Tickets, Programme & further information: blockfloetenfesttage.de
Read the following greeting from the director:
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
dear festival visitors, dear music and recorder lovers!
It is a special pleasure for me to invite you to our wonderful festival all about the recorder and its music this spring in Bad Kissingen. We are proud and happy that after many editions in Stockstadt and after a first edition last year in Bad Kissingen, we can again hold the 38th edition of the recorder festival in the splendid premises of the Regentenbau.
A warm welcome!
Traditionally, it starts on Ascension Day, we welcome our guests on 18 May 2023 and are very much looking forward to not only experiencing the premises of the Regentenbau in the Franconian World Cultural Heritage Bad Kissingen with you for 4 days, but also to enriching them with wonderful music, exquisite instruments and a lively exchange. Such beautiful bijous make it possible for us to fully enjoy the events from small recitals to chamber music concerts to the large music exhibition and to experience new listening experiences.
I am not exaggerating when I promise you the very best acoustic conditions for our festival; the Rossini Hall, in which most of the concerts take place, allows us to experience the music in an extraordinary and filigree way, in the exhibition it is much quieter and thus more concentrated due to the distribution in several rooms, and there is also the possibility to withdraw into rooms and test an instrument in peace or to exchange ideas with like-minded people.
In such a difficult time, in which there is also uncertainty as to whether and how events can take place, we have decided, after long preparations in the town of Bad Kissingen, but also event-wise in the team, to expand our traditional recorder festival days and to present the individual formats for this in intimate line-ups.
“Early music in a new guise” is our motto, and in this spirit I am pleased to introduce our 2023 festival artists: Dan Laurin, Lucie Horsch, Piers Adams, Barbara Heindlmeier, Maurice Steger, Thomas Dunford, the ensemble La Ninfea, Simon Borutzki, Anna Paradiso, Ralf Bienioschek and his band, Mirko Ludwig and Lyndy Mayle.
In addition to the more classical formats such as recitals, chamber music concerts in various instrumentations and a festive orchestral concert, we will also experience newly developed very innovative formats that are exciting extensions of our festive days: On Friday and Saturday evenings we present you with Late Night events – two formats with two very different and equally fascinating contents: once a pop band that clearly professes its love for the recorder, and once a Fluyten Lust-hof evening with works by van Eyck featuring no less than three soloists in an ambience that could not be more fitting.
Our festival kicks off with the festive opening concert ‘Unerhört’ (Unheard) on Thursday evening in the magnificent Max Littmann Hall: the award-winning ensemble La Cetra Barockorchester Basel and festival director Maurice Steger will make music in works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann and inaugurate the Regentenbau in a festive concert setting with their new Bach project.
The next day, the hall will then be transformed into the heart of the recorder fair and exhibition, inviting visitors to linger, browse, try out and buy.
As in previous years, we will hold the master class on Friday morning in the form of four lessons open to the public for all of you. On Saturday morning, a completely new format awaits you, which we have lifted out of the eaves this year. We invite you to a conference: Under the title ‘From the Tredecime to the Third Octave‘, the development of the recorder as an instrument will be discussed, presented and played, starting from baroque models up to the new developments of the 21st century. The new recorder types with their musical and technical features and possibilities are the protagonists in this discussion concert.
On 6 October 2022, an important member of our festival family passed away completely unexpectedly. The wonderful Adriana Breukink has an important place in the recorder scene, both as a musician and as a recorder maker, and especially in our festival. It is therefore a matter close to our hearts to commemorate Adri within the framework of the festival: we have included events at various points in the programme in which Adri’s recorders will be heard. We have marked these programme items especially for you.
On Sunday morning, the service for the festival will take place in the Church of the Redeemer. Afterwards, the participants of the recorder orchestra under the direction of Simon Borutzki will present the programme of the Intrada workshop in a matinée. You are cordially invited to actively participate in both formats and to make music together.
We hope that we can inspire you with this wide-ranging, colourful and diverse programme and look forward to welcoming you to our concerts!
As you are already used to from last year, we have done everything in cooperation with the excellent organisation of the music exhibition as well as with our entire team to create the highest level of safety both for trying out instruments as well as for staying on the festival grounds and in the concerts.
As a very special highlight for all those who want to enjoy the festival to the fullest, there is the possibility to take part in aperitifs, meet and greets, coming together, a guided tour of the exhibition by the festival director on Saturday at 2 p.m. and other highlights in addition to all the concerts. We have put together a special package for this, which you can find on our homepage.
I am delighted to present you with some of the most interesting recorder players and ensembles, but also exhibitors who are so keen to share their instruments and new releases with you, as well as performers and musicians of today, and I am excited to be able to experience the Recorder Festival Days with you: The place where we all come together and celebrate, enjoy, share and be inspired by the incomparable atmosphere, sounds, beautiful instruments and valuable contacts.
I look forward to seeing you in May,
Sincerely
Your Maurice Steger
