26 July – 30 August

Leonard Bernstein, a musician no less celebrated than Herbert von Karajan, but his opposite number in personality and philosophy, paid a rare visit to Salzburg to conduct two concerts, including Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with the Vienna Philharmonic. Karajan himself was, as ever, ubiquitous, giving ten performances of two operas, conducting three concert programmes and directing the new staging of Don Carlo. Considering the number of rehearsals as well as his administrative and social duties, it was a superhuman workload. Attention was also drawn by a younger conductor, James Levine, who gave his Salzburg début conducting the London Symphony Orchestra. Johannes Schaaf staged his first production for the Festival, albeit in spoken theatre, with Georg Büchner’s Leonce und Lena. This year the ceremonial address was delivered by a philosopher: Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, who spoke on “The Mysterious Reality of the Beautiful”.

1975: Leonard Bernstein, a rare visitor to Salzburg, arriving at the Festspielhaus with director Tassilo Nekola.

World premiere
Fritz Hochwälder
Lazaretti oder Der Säbeltiger (“Lazaretti or The Sabre-Toothed Tiger’)
D: Michael Kehlmann
Ds: Gottfried Neumann-Spallart
Cs: Eva Sturminger
Landestheater

New production
Georg Büchner
Leonce und Lena
D: Johannes Schaaf
Ds: Wilfried Minks
Cs: Christian Göbl
Landestheater

New production
Giuseppe Verdi
Don Carlo
C/D: Herbert von Karajan
Ds: Günther Schneider-Siemssen
Cs: Georges Wakhevitch
Grosses Festspielhaus

Revivals: Jedermann,Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Le nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte, Die Frau ohne Schatten

17 orchestral concerts, 4 chamber concerts, 6 serenades, 6 matinées, 3 solo recitals
7 lieder recitals, 1 church concert, 1 public reading

Details of the several years:

1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989,