Grafenegg: Beethoven and Orff with Cristian Măcelaru

Programme

We open the Grafenegg Festival 2026 with major works by Beethoven and Orff.

Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy begins with a dramatic piano solo, performed by the festival’s director, before Cristian Măcelaru takes up the baton. The Vienna Singverein delicately enters and everyone rises together to the anthemic conclusion.

One of the most popular works of the 20th century is the Carmina Burana, songs from Benediktbeuern, an extraordinarily, worldly celebration of medieval life, which Carl Orff moulded into immediately stirring, archaic and monumental sounds in 1935/36. The Carmina also provides great challenges for the solo voices and, of course, for the choirs: a delight for both audience and participants.