Rheingau Musik Festival in Germany
Classical Music Concerts in Frankfurt, Wiesbaden and Eberbach Region
The Rheingau Musik Festival is a classical music series with concerts in Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden, Kloster Eberbach, Schloss Johannisberg, churches, and wine estates.
The annual Rheingau Musik Festival (Rheingau Music Festival) in Germany is one of the largest concert series in Europe. In 2008, the festival will be held for the 21st time with around 150 concerts performed in almost 50 different venues in the Rheingau region.
- Concerts are held throughout the year but the main events are in summer, especially in July and August.
The Rheingau is roughly the region to the west of Frankfurt am Main and to the north of the Main and Rhine Rivers. The region includes Wiesbaden and Rüdesheim as well as some of Germany’s best-known vineyards such as Schloss Johannisberg and Kloster Eberbach Monastery. Public transportation in the region is well developed and often the best option on concert days when parking can be problematic.
Music and Orchestras at the 2008 Rheingau Music Festival
Although the focus of the Rheingau Musik Festival is on classical music, performances range from early music to jazz and blues – occasionally all in a single concert. The main events involve symphonic, choral, chamber, and piano music. Special concerts are aimed at children while combinations of music and German literature as well as music and food are also popular.
Symphony orchestras that will perform during 2008 include from Germany the Hessen Rundfunk (HR), West Deutsche Rundfunk (WDR), RSO Berlin, and Bamberg orchestras while the international guests include the Budapest Festival, BBC, Krakow, Russian National, Warsaw, Kirov, Göteborg, Oslo, and the New York Philharmonic orchestras. The lists of chamber music orchestras, brass bands, and soloists are equally impressive.
Concert Venues Used by the Rheingau Music Festival
Venues used for the Rheingau Music Festival range from traditional concert halls to churches, monastery courtyards, wine estates, and hotels. Tickets are generally the more expensive and harder to obtain for spectacular traditional concert halls such as the Alte Oper in Frankfurt and the Kurhalle in Wiesbaden where international symphony orchestras generally perform.
A particularly popular venue is Kloster Eberbach, a beautifully restored medieval Cistercian monastery near Wiesbaden. The Romanesque basilica here has excellent acoustics. In addition to the traditional opening and closing concerts of the Rheingau Music Festival by the hr-Sinfonie, the Eberbach basilica is a major venue for performances by other symphony orchestras and choirs. The courtyard in the cloisters is also used for outdoor concerts while local produce – Kloster Eberbach happens to be the largest single wine estate in Germany – can be sampled onsite.
Other famous nearby vineyards such as Schloss Vollrads and Schloss Johannisberg with its Baroque palace and Romanesque church and views of the Rhine Valley host numerous concerts. Concerts specifically aimed at children are mostly staged in the romantic Eltville Castle on the banks of the Rhine.
Tickets for the Rheingau Music Festival
Quality comes at a price but in Germany, enjoying culture is generally not expensive. Ticket prices depend on the venue and concert but range from €10 to €150. Tickets are mostly cheaper than €50. Prices for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra’s performance in the Alte Oper in Frankfurt range from €28 to €150 and are by far the most expensive for the 2008 concert year.
- Early reservations are recommended – in 2007, 94.8% of the 130,000 tickets on offer were sold.
The cheapest tickets sometimes have restricted views, especially in non-traditional concert venues such as medieval churches. Such restrictions are well specified in the ticket schedules.
Many concerts are held outdoors and each individual venue and concert specify alternatives in case of inclement weather. Concerts generally move indoors if an alternative nearby venue is available but concerts can also be postponed or cancelled altogether.
- Bearers of Schönwetterkarten (Good Weather Tickets) cannot be seated indoors if an outdoor event is forced inside. Full refunds are given.
Germany has many cultural offerings throughout the year but in summer, many regions have particularly busy schedules with numerous cultural festivals. Outdoor concerts, often in historical venues, are very popular and tickets are generally pleasantly cheap. The Rheingau is within easy access of Frankfurt International Airport making it an ideal excursion destination on longer stopovers.
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